The sky is the limit and in southern Alberta, it was filled with plenty of flying rockets on Saturday.
Dozens of amateur rocket enthusiasts from all over western Canada came out for the 21st Rock Lake rocket launch.
Amid all the rockets, there was one in particular that had many eager to see it take off.
“We’ve never seen a rocket like this built and flown in Canada and we wanted to bring that to our community,” said Shane Weatherill, Kronos E Project team member.
It is called the Kronos Pente and is a small scale model of the famous Saturn V rocket from the Apollo 11 mission. The rocket was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing — but building it was no easy task.
“This project took us about a year and a half to build. It was very challenging. There’s a lot of different or innovative ideas that we put into it,” Weatherill said.
Despite a couple of setbacks, the Kronos Pente still sored high in the sky.
“It was very rewarding to see it fly through the air… It was awesome,” said Weatherill.
“We’ve had a spectacular launch with the Kronos Project, of course, but we’ve also had a lot of other good flights that have been going up,” said Tim Rempel, president of the Canadian Association of Rocketry.
Majority of those flights came from a younger generation whose interest in rockets is only climbing.
“I’m here to shoot my rocket and it’s my favourite thing to do in the summer,” said Gage Westworth, a junior rocketeer.
“This kind of event attracts seasoned veterans and inspires kids. I think it really helps kids get into the sciences and it builds the future of the hobby,” added Weatherill.
The next high power rocket launch event will be held in September with amateur rocketeers and spectators welcome to attend.
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