MARCH/APRIL 2007 AN INTERVIEW WITH VERN AND GLEDA ESTES MABEL Vern’s Rocket Motor Build the Manufacturing Machine ON EGG 46 45 49 THREE Complete Coverage! THE 16TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS $4.95 Canada $6.95 OF SPACE MODELS Poyéhali! 1 THE 16TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS OF SPACE MODELS Reported by John Langford, Imagine a stadium fi lled with 10,000 team member speaking Russian, translat- 2 cheering fans, police escorts to block traf- ing for a Russian general and for the Presi- US Team Manager fi c and hold back a crush of autograph- dent of the FAI. Imagine a tent city built Photos by John Langford (JSL) seekers, and aerial demonstrations fea- in the desert, complete with paved main turing balloons, kites, helicopters, and street, food stands, beer stands, a cafeteria, or Russian Space Agency (RSA) fi reworks—all for a model rocket meet! souvenir shops, an infi rmary, parking lots, unless otherwise noted. Then imagine a secret rocket base in a des- viewing areas, awards areas, and 48 launch ert, where the fi rst human left the planet pads. Not to mention camels, scorpions, but only a few Westerners have ever been, and dust, dust, dust. Imagine foreign rock- reachable only by chartered aircraft with eteers breaking down in tears of joy upon 1 “Poyéhali” was the word spoken by Yuri permission of the government, littered meeting the founder of Estes Industries. Gagarin, the fi rst man in the space, as now with industrial wreckage and space I would have told you this was a com- he lifted off. It translates roughly as shuttles left to rot in the dust, but which plete fantasy n-e-v-e-r-g-o-i-n-g-t-o-h-a-p- “we’re going” or “let’s roll!”. still routinely launches people and cargo p-e-n if I hadn’t seen it myself, and didn’t 2 With acknowledgments to Trip Barber, into space. Imagine a colonial city ruled have reliable witnesses and thousands of Steve Humphrey, Bob Parks, Ed Pear- by Russians but populated by Kazaks with photographs who say it did. son, Jennifer Ash-Poole, and Grigoriy Vislobokov who read drafts and pro- no grass but every public space fi lled with Oh yes, and there was also a heck of a vided many helpful comments. rockets or missiles or memorials to space rocket contest. and rocket heroes. Imagine an American 14 MARCH/APRIL 2007 SPORT ROCKETRY nesota-enroute-to- The US Team in Lenin Square of Mississippi came Baikonur town. L-R standing: Vern Greg Stewart. We Estes, Keith Vinyard, Gleda Estes, all met in Atlanta Chris Kidwell, Bob Parks, for a Delta non-stop James Duffy, Dean Franklin, fl ight to Moscow. We Tony Reynolds, David Bellhorn, Dawnn Reynolds, Trip Barber, landed in Moscow Chris Franklin, Ben Reynolds, on Sunday morn- Steve Humphrey, Jennifer Ash-Poole, ing, collected our George Reynolds, Grigoriy Vislobokov, luggage, and head- Gib Reynolds, Dave Clark, ed for our hotel. Barbara Langford, Mark Petrovitch. We had anticipated Kneeling: Bill Parks, Katharine delays and hassles Humphrey, Esther Clark, Scott getting our model- Vinyard, Bill Stine, John Langford, ing equipment past Fritz Langford, Kevin Johnson. TSA and out of the Not pictured: Greg Stewart. US, and with Rus- sian customs getting into the country, but Getting There both went smooth- ly except that three Thirty-one Americans assembled for bags were delayed the trip on Saturday, September 16, 2006. one day in transit. From California came Bob Parks and his If only the same son Bill. From Missouri came Keith Vinyard could be said for and his son Scott, plus Chris Franklin, ac- our rocket motors! companied by his father Dean. From Texas Unable to carry mo- came the Reynolds family (Tony, Dawnn, tors with us and an- Gib, Ben, and George), James Duffy, and ticipating trouble, David Bellhorn. From New Jersey, Steve we had split our Humphrey and daughter Katherine. Mary- shipment into three land was represented by Ed Pearson (FAI parts, one coming Restaurant Arbat, the US team’s assigned eatery in town Juror), Jennifer Ash-Poole (offi cial timer), from the US, one throughout the contest. Bill Stine, Chris Kidwell, Grigoriy Vislobokov, Trip Barber, Steve Humphrey, Katharine Humphrey. Kevin Johnson, and Mark Petrovitch. From from Serbia, and one JSL photo. Virginia we had the Langfords (John, Bar- from the Czech Re- bara, and Fritz), Esther Clark and her fa- public. Getting the The contest itself was held in Baikonur, ther Dave, Trip Barber, Chris Kidwell, and American motors released from Russian which is a small Russian zone in the center Grigoriy Vislobokov. From Arizona we customs was an ultimately Quixotic quest of the independent nation of Kazakhstan. were joined by Bill Stine, from Colorado that consumed much of our attention for Baikonur is special because it is so historic came Vern and Gleda Estes, and from Min- many days. SPORT ROCKETRY MARCH/APRIL 2007 15 had to clear Kazak customs. The terminal was an unheated hut and we were the only plane in sight. The luggage was screened and x-rayed as we deplaned. A British woman fainted cold in the customs line. It was dark as we exited to a madhouse of ev- eryone collecting checked luggage, which also had to be screened before you could take it. We met our offi cial translator, who taught English at the local school, and a number of her students who had been brought along as helpers. We loaded onto buses and drove into town to our Hotel Tsentralnaya, a 1960s era structure on the town square overlooking a statue of Lenin. We collected the team for our fi rst dinner, and walked en mass several blocks to the Restaurant Arbat, our assigned eatery for the next ten days. Wednesday, September 20 Steve Humphrey and Chris Kidwell check in the US team motors for testing. Our fi rst order of business was to track RSA photo. down rocket motors. The Czech and Ser- bian shipments were located and in our and so remote. It is where the fi rst satel- ernment. The entire participant group hands by noon, but the American motors lite, the fi rst dog, the fi rst man, and the of the World Championships—some continued to be a problem with Customs fi rst woman were all launched into orbit. 355 people—assembled at Moscow’s in Moscow. We registered the team with As such, it has an almost mystical position Domodedovo Airport on Tuesday morning the organizers, and turned in our engines in the pantheon of air and space sites. It for specially charted fl ights to Baikonur. for testing and impoundment. Twenty-two was originally chosen by the Russians for The US was joined on our TU-154M by other teams showed up, over 350 partici- being one of the southernmost places in the Russian, British, Spanish, German, Ro- pants in all. In the evening we turned in the USSR and also one of the most remote, manian, Swiss, and Austrian teams. Three our Scale Models (with a fl ail over the size and so it remains today—only about 700 rows ahead of me Dave Clark was holding of the contestant numbers that had to be miles north of Afghanistan, in a part of Ka- the emergency exit release handle cover in on each model) and Grigoriy and I attend- zakhstan deemed too valuable to be grant- place as we taxied out. Greg Stewart actu- ed a team managers meeting and dinner at ed independence and hence “leased” by ally kept a piece of his seat that fell off and a local Pizzeria —which served real pizza the Russians for the next 50 years. When used it as part of his launcher throughout and became increasingly the favorite din- I asked my astronaut friend Jay Apt, who the contest. ing spot for the U.S. team as the time in led a mission in space that docked at the The land below gradually changed from Baikonur went on. Grigoriy is a native of Russian MIR space station, whether he had green to brown. Before long we were fl ying Ukraine and a co-worker at Aurora Flight been ever to Baikonur, he replied “heck over desert—not sand dunes, but hard- Sciences, who came along as our Assistant no—my fl ight surgeon went and he got packed dust with small scrubs. We de- Team Manager. By the end of the day the hepatitis, so I never went.” scended over tracking stations and launch pattern was already clear, as the contest or- One thing about Baikonur is that you pads and landed safely. We knew then we ganizers began using Grigoriy as their of- can’t get there on your own—you must weren’t in Kansas anymore. The Baikonur fi cial translator and troubleshooter. This have permission from the Russian gov- airport is technically in Kazakhstan, so we was to add to his workload throughout the week but also had a lot of collateral ben- efi ts for the US Team. Thursday September 21 Opening Ceremony—First Flights We assembled in Lenin Square in downtown Baikonur at 9:00 am for the big opening ceremony. This took all morning, but was easily the most impressive event I have seen at a rocket meet. All 23 coun- tries lined up behind standard bearers and marched the four blocks to the town soc- cer stadium. The stadium was fi lled with 10,000 people, which added a lot to the 16 MARCH/APRIL 2007 SPORT ROCKETRY effect.