Through October, Mr. Steve R. taught the Space Exploration merit badge to about ten scouts. The merit badge culminated with a dawn rocket launching exercise at South Run Recreation Center on October 30.  Mr. and Mrs. Steve R. set up three launchers and a table to help reload the rockets, which the scouts had built during the previous two meetings. They also provided hot chocolate and doughnuts, much appreciated on a cool autumn morning.

       We all assembled at 7:00 in the morning, just before dawn, and we had the first launches about fifteen minutes later, after the safety briefing and getting the first set of rockets loaded on the pads. The first rockets were especially spectacular, as you could see the burn of the engines against the dark sky, and then see the wadding fire out when the payloads deployed. In most cases we loaded up three rockets and attempted a simultaneous launch, though that was rarely successful since normally at least one rocket hesitated before firing.

       Every scout fired two rockets, and then some fired others that they had built at home, which were bigger than those we built together. All were competing to see who could land the payload nearest to a pylon set up as a target. No one mastered the winds, though, and so we ended up drawing lots for the prize instead. John R. won the drawing, a poster showing the family of Boeing rockets.