A Cosmic Coincidence!

A few years ago (nine, to be exact) my wife Laurie and I went to a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch. It was held at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas. We picked up this while there:

Sorry about the glare, but I didn't want to pull it off the wall. Anyway, the interesting part (at least for Laurie and myself) are the dates. You see, my birthday is September the 13th, and Laurie's is...you guessed it- November 11th!!! Really cosmic, man! (which is one of the first things I taught my daughter to say, but I digress)

Sometimes those stars just line up, I guess!
Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Visit the Beautiful Moon!

I have a quick one for you this week. While looking around on the ol' interwebs, I found this:

Yep, it's the Moonliner! In 1955, when Disneyland opened, they fully expected there to be passenger service to the moon by 1986 (that was the year that Tomorrowland was originally meant to represent). Now, they weren't saying we were going to land there. The Moonliner orbited the moon and immediately returned to Mother Earth. Still, such was the optimism of the time.

Now? Well...let's just say that we could use a little dose of 1955 around here.

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

A History of the Heart of the Thing

Most of the time I try to make my blog posts appeal to a fairly wide audience. So, I tie in science fiction, toys, history, or whatever else jumps out at me that has simething to do with the central model rocket theme. Today, however, I'm going to do a post that probably will only interest the true hard-core rocket geeks out there. Our journey begins with....a box.

This is a box that I happened across in my rocket room closet. When I saw it, I just knew that I had to do this post. You see, inside the box is this:

Yep! It's filled with old "collectible" rocket motors! The motor is truly the heart of any rocket, and the various rocket companies have come up with many entertaining ideas on different motors for different uses. Now, my collection is certainly not huge (a lot of guys in DARS have larger collections) but I think it's interesting...Let's have a look, shall we?

The old Estes tubes (late '70s, after the round ones) These are the ones I loved getting in the mail! The mini engines have never been opened...

Centuri standard and mini engines!

In the late '80s a lot of MPC stuff was found in a warehouse and sold at discount stores. It was a model rocket collector's dream!

The infamous MPC Mini-B! Yes, they do blow up.

The Estes Short. The Birdie and the Beta were two rockets that took these...

One of my prized motors...an original Enerjet E in a never opened baggie!

Here is the actual motor...

I'm not real clear on the history of the Pro-Jet. I think they were kind of replacements for the Enerjet line....but I'm not sure.

Another early composite motor. The Crown Rocketry E.

Near and dear to my heart...Flight Systems Inc. made some of the coolest black powder motors EVER. These are E's.

A strange little motor that I think was by...maybe AVI? I'm not sure...

These I know about! Apogee used to produce motors just for competition. I still mourn the loss of their composite mini-B. These are a bit smaller..1/4 A's

From one extreme to another...How about a 24mm G motor? In the late '80s you could get one! The Aerotech G55-15!

So there you have it! I hope you've enjoyed today's trip down memory lane! ...and if you're not really a model rocket geek, don't worry, I'll get back to the other junk next week!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

A Monopoly In Space

This week we're going to look at something I picked up about 18 years ago...and then kind of forgot! You see, I have started another blog called "Stu's Attic" that features items from my other, non-rocket related collections. One such collection is my board game collection. When I was digging around for something to post on "Stu's Attic," I ran across this:

Yep, the U.S. Space Program version of Monopoly! Actually, this is a pretty good version of the classic game. It came out at a time when USAopoly was making Monopoly games for just about any subject.

They did a really good job on this one, though. The "properties" are various spacecraft and launch facilities. How many times can you say you've bought an X-15 for 60 bucks? ...Or Johnson Space Center for 140.00?

The goal seems to be to take over the space program by buying it all up...which is a little weird, but whatever. I guess that's one way to fund it.

That being said, that's actually kind of what is happening now with the private companies getting into the space biz, so maybe they weren't so far off after all! If you would like your own copy of this game, you can still find them on eBay for about 45 bucks.

So until next time, fly 'em fast and high!