Skies were patchy with clouds and rain Saturday over a grassy field at Little Big Econ State Forest where two launch pads were ready to fire off a fleet of model rockets.
Three-year-old Nico Garces of Orlando was one of the 40 rocketeers who arrived eager to watch their models blast off into the Oviedo sky. His mother Jenny helped him position his 18-inch, two-tone model rocket he affectionately named “Blue and White” at the event organized by model rocket club ROCK (Rocketry of Orlando’s Community Kids).
After preparations were completed and given the go by ROCK mission control, Nico hesitantly pressed the launch button, then whipped his head upward, leaving his jaw behind as he tracked “Blue and White” through the air.
“It was fun to launch my rocket. And I want them to go to outer space,” Nico said.
As far as he was concerned, Nico insists “Blue and White” did fly to outer space, and he was far from the only young rocketeer or amateur model rocket enthusiast attending. The hobby appears to be experiencing a wave of increased interest alongside the uptick in rocket launches over in Cape Canaveral.
The Space Coast is averaging more than one launch a week as more private rocket companies place their flag in the space game. Recently, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station had one of its busiest days of commercial launches ever, sending up both a United Launch Alliance Atlas V and a SpaceX Falcon 9 within 13 hours.
Young Nico’s mother Jenny said he began going to club meetings in April after his father started researching model rockets online.
“The first time I think they came out he just fell like perfectly still for four hours, which is kind of unusual for a 3-year-old,” she said. “If you find something like that you got to stick with it.”
ROCK meets once a month at a wide open grassy area of Little Big Econ State Forest to launch model rockets of varying size and power. Saturday’s turnout was about average, but of the 40 people in attendance, many if not most were new rocketeers or first-time arrivals at the club, said ROCK leader Roger Smith, whose been coordinating the club for 10 years.
“Over the years, I think interest in rocketry has increased, but it has been a challenge,” he said. “For much of the time since the pandemic started (Little Big Econ) was not allowing group activities, like ours, in the park. Now that they have allowed us to begin using the park again, we are at the time of year when bad weather often prevents us from holding club launches and the heat limits attendance.”
Smith became a model rocket fan 50 years ago at the height of the Apollo era and thanks in part to varying school assignments, but briefly fell away from the hobby some time after high school. He and his wife experienced re-entry to model rockets 25 years ago, and the two have been visiting launches ever since. The Smiths attend at least one launch a month with ROCK, but have plans to go on a tour around the Southeast region of the country to see more launches from the model rocket community using an RV they recently acquired.
Locally, Smith has been seeing many new faces this year and saw club attendance spike to 50 people during a springtime launch when the weather was cooperating. Attendance includes “kids” ages 1 to 99, Smith said.
“You’re still a kid when you’re out here,” he said.
But ROCK isn’t the only place fueling a general interest in rocketry blasting off.
Steve Rausch, one of the owners of Orlando’s Colonial Photo and Hobby, said he’s seen rising interest in rockets and other hobbies across the board ever since COVID-19 kept people inside. He said rocket enthusiasm grows every time “the news” covers a big launch.
“If they keep shooting off rockets off the coast, people are gonna keep coming in here to buy them,” he said.
Hector Yepes, an assistant manager at HobbyTown in Sanford, has noticed a big pickup in business specifically from grandparents and parents hoping to share the hobby with their young ones.
“I get a lot of people from DeLand and Daytona, grandparents and kids coming and I’ll usually hear someone say, ‘I had this rocket when I was your age.’ It’s a big nostalgia business,” he said.
That’s exactly the case with Patrick Glazier, 59, of Viera, and his son Eli, 11, the latter of which fired off seven different rockets at Little Big Econ with the ROCK club.
“I like the sound of (rockets). I like the complexity and building them. It’s kind of challenging. I like launching them. I like everything about them,” Eli said.
He and his father having been attending ROCK events for about a year. For the senior Glazier his favorite part of the hobby is the social aspect of the group launches, although he appears to love the sight of a launch as well, evidenced by the fact that the only thing louder than the rockets’ takeoffs are Glazier’s contagious laughter tracking the scaled-down vehicles through the sky.
Originally from Asheville, N.C., the Glaziers got into model rocketry with ROCK after moving to Viera where the sky above their home has been busy with rocket traffic. Last week they drove early in the morning to Titusville to watch the Atlas V blast off during the busy commercial launch day. They traveled a considerably shorter distance to watch SpaceX’s evening launch.
“We were too lazy to go back up there in the evening to watch the Falcon 9,” Glazier said. “So we watched that one from the front yard. It’s just a Falcon 9. We’ll catch the next one.”
In the meantime, they’re looking forward to the next club meeting.
“It’s a great time. It’s a great father-and-son activity and you meet good people out here,” Glazier said.
ROCK meets on the first Saturday of each month at the Barr Street entrance of the Little Big Econ State Forest. The next meeting is Sept. 3. Details can be found at the club’s website at r-o-c-k.org.
Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com
