Millstone Scouts Build and Launch 2026
CENJARS was invited once again to help the Millstone Scouts with their annual Build and Launch event.
On Friday night Eric and Brian met with the Scouts for their build night. We provided a little guidance and insights from our experience to help the kids (and their parents) each build their own rockets. In previous years they built Generic E2X or Make it - take it style rockets. This year was a little different. They came with Estes "Orbis 3D" rockets. These are partial kits from Estes consisting of body tube, engine block, engine hook, spacer tube, shock cord, parachute, and directions. Estes also provides the design files for the customer to 3D print the fin can, nose cone, nose cone eye, and launch lug ring. The Scout Masters did the 3D printing in advance. They had a selection of parts in different colors (red, blue, black), which are also in slightly different shapes of nose cones, and 3 or 4 fin cans. The body tubes come with pre-cut holes for the engine hook and to thread the shock cord through. It was a much easier build experience (and faster!) for the kids. They then decorated the plain white body tubes with markers. More than 2 dozen rockets were built in less than an hour and a half. The kids were fun to work with, and the parents were a big help too. Kudos to the Scout Masters for being pretty well prepared and organized too.
The next morning, Saturday Aug 15th, was launch day at the Millstone Middle school. Eric, Brian, and Joe, along with Martha, Kevin, and Joan, were there to set up the launch gear and help get the kids flying. Again, the Scout Masters were prepared and had the Engines, wadding, etc with them. A couple of the Scout Masters and parents had done this before, and we all jumped in to help the kids prep their rockets for flight. That done, we started pushing buttons! The kids all wanted to launch their own, and under CENJARS guidance, they all launched at least once, many twice. Their rockets flew great on A8-3 engines. A few brave folks flew on C motors, but they went clear out of sight, at least 1000ft up! It was also great to see some of the kids with rockets from last year, plus a few they had acquired on their own. We got those flying as well!
It was a nice morning of flying with very good weather. The kids all had fun, as did we, and I think the parents did too. Some folks may be showing up at our CENJARS launches soon, which of course would be most welcome!
Pictures are here in the Gallery, and there may be video too!
Uploaded files:Fun day, very little wind. Kids had fun
Pixs n video posted in gallery
