Septmeber 5, 1999:

On the pad and ready for it's first flight. It flew once on an A8-3 engine, but only ~20 feet into the air! The chute opened ~5 feet off the ground, and one fin came loose. We taped that in place (yes, I KNOW it's not stable that way), and launched again using a C5-3 engine (below right).

My next project is a Sputnik. Yep, that's what got Homer Hickham started with rockets, and now I'm working on building one myself.

Estes used to make plans available to hobbyists with via a monthly magazine, and one of those from 1964 contained plans to build a "Sputnik Too" using a 3 inch styrofoam ball, wooden dowels, and an engine mount. The idea is to get it up, then have the engine eject and allow the "rocket" to execute what's called a "featherweight tumble recovery"..... In other words, the engine will eject (instead of a nose cone & parachute assembly, as with conventional model rockets), then the "Sputnik Too" will tumble to Earth "gently".

• Here are the plans on JimZ's site (it's available as at "TIF" graphic file, which you should save then open in a graphic editor like Microsoft Imaging; e-mail me if you have problems opening the document & I'll send you a version you can read).
• Here's an article from the New York Times about the 40th anniversary of Sputnik (complete with an audio clip of the beeping sound heard around the world!).
• Here's a great site from NASA about Sputnik and the Dawn of the Space Age
• Here's a brief history of Sputnik, from the Encyclopaedia Brittanica:
  Sputnik - any of a series of artificial Earth satellites whose launching by the Soviet Union beginning on Oct. 4, 1957, inaugurated the Space Age. Sputnik 1, the first satellite launched by man, was a 184-pound (83.6-kilogram) capsule. It achieved an Earth orbit with an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 584 miles (942 km) and a perigee (nearest point) of 143 miles (230 km), circling the Earth every 96 minutes and remaining in orbit until early 1958 when it fell back and burned in the Earth's atmosphere. Sputnik 2 carried the dog Laika, the first living creature to be shot into space and orbit the Earth. Eight more Sputnik missions with similar satellites carried out experiments on a variety of animals to test spacecraft life-support systems; they also tested reentry procedures and furnished data on space temperatures, pressures, particles, radiation, and magnetic fields.
  (Don't worry, I'm not going to try launching any dogs!)

Estes used to sell a Space Plane. They also provided free plans in 1964 to a "Flying Jenny" (rocket boosted glider). Plans for both are on-line. They fly to ~300 feet under rocket power on an A or B engine, then glide back to Earth (in theory).

The Jenny is a rocket powered biplane. I painted mine Bright Red, with a black underside of the bottom wing, to help spot it. It's ready to launch!

4/1/00 Update-Back to the drawing board!