(June 30, 2012) -- Most children enjoy watching a rocket launch. They find themselves inspired afterward by the dynamics of it all as a massive rocket pushes skyward and toward space.
They rush home with their minds full of creative energy and begin to read about spaceflight and how it all works.
Model rocketry is a great way to introduce a child to what it takes to be a rocket engineer.
My son Aaron, a witness to a shuttle lift-off and even the recent Mars Curiosity rover launch from inside Kennedy Space Center, is learning how to build model rockets and the patience of a countdown.
Patience in that 'are the winds to high' or 'is there anyone near where the rocket may land' I ask him. After all, I gave him the job as the official launch director.
As he counted down aloud on Friday and we awaited the first launch of our rocket named "Explorer", I recalled for a few seconds my Father and I doing this exact same thing thirty years earlier and just 30 miles away.
As Explorer lifted-off at 8:59 am EDT, I first took sight at a grin which swept across Aaron's face before turning my attention toward the blue sky to see a long streak of white smoke already high across.
At one point Aaron exclaimed, "It worked!", and we ran off to recover the two-foot high newly christen aircraft.
(Charles Atkeison reports on science & technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
