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I'm Greg Lyzenga and I'm here at Lucerne Dry Lake for the National Association of Rocketry's
National Sport Launch.
Announcer: ...two...one. All right, it spins up.
I've been flying rockets ever since I was a little guy. I can still see the Sky and Telescope magazine
with the little ad in it that said 'Fly your own rockets.' and I got really excited about it
and saved up my pennies and got my first rocket.
The first rocket I ever flew actually was a WAC Corporal. It was a little rocket about 12 inches tall.
I think it's really important that kids learn how to be involved hands-on in a technological activity
like this. The idea that you can build and design and fly something like this with your own hands
and your own mind is really empowering. And, I would not underestimate the influence that it had on me
throughout my career. I have been a member of the technical staff at JPL for the last 31 years and I'm
also a physics professor at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. So, what I did was
I built a full-scale replica of the WAC Corporal; which around JPL is pretty famous because it's the rocket
that Frank Malina launched to basically be the first scientific payload in space. It went 70 kilometers.
It went into the technical definition of space and was launched in 1946. So, as a little homage to JPL and
to Frank Malina, my son and I cooked up this slightly crazy project and decided we wanted to fly a
full-scale WAC Corporal. So, here it is. And, so our fingers are crossed and we'll see if we can get this
guy up in the air. We just have a little bit of work left to do here in terms of arming the flight computers,
the electronics, checking everything one last time, saying a little prayer and then hoping that the wind
isn't too high and off it goes! It's not going to go 70 kilometers today. This has an 'M' motor in it,
which should propel it about 4500 feet. It'll come down in two pieces under two parachutes.
Announcer: All right, trailer out there at the far end of the range. Greg Lyzenga with his Aerotech M1939
WAC Corporal. Going in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, launch.
We have ignition...and liftoff.
All right! Yeah, yeah.
Announcer: This is a large rocket, so everyone please stay on your feet and keep your eyes on it.
Arcing over. We have an event. We have one chute. We have a second chute. Good.
Woohoo! Looks like it worked. All right, time to walk. (laughter)
Good job. I got some good shots. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much.
Announcer: Please keep your eyes on this.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology