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To: ExSES
No kidding! Everyone here should watch "October Sky" A great movie about Homer Hickum (future NASA engineer) and his efforts to build a rocket.

14 posted on 03/09/2003 1:23:39 PM PST by annyokie (provacative yet educational reading alert)
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To: annyokie
No kidding! Everyone here should watch "October Sky" A great movie about Homer Hickum (future NASA engineer) and his efforts to build a rocket.

Undoubtedly a subversive at heart!

As a prospective rocketeer in the late 50s (living just outside the Cape Canaveral area), my attempts at producing rockets were quite often the source of investigation by Brevard County Deputies and Patrick AFB APs!

Though, in my feeble defense, numerous multi-million dollar versions were regularly BLOWING UP (Vanguards, Early Atlas's, etc.).

My buddies and I certainly were not attempting to set off BOMBS..., but it often turned out that way! We would carefully prepare the launch area in the dunes down by the beach, hunker down in our sandbagged "Launch Control Facility"..., then have to snatch up our meager equipmant and run like hell after a launch "failure".

Unlike any movie portrayals, we would usually "regroup" a few miles down the beach to conduct a "Post-Launch" session during which we would brainstorm what went wrong (and consume a few six-packs!).

25 posted on 03/09/2003 1:37:52 PM PST by ExSES
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To: annyokie
Everyone here should watch "October Sky" A great movie about Homer Hickum (future NASA engineer) and his efforts to build a rocket.

That'll teach me to be too quick on the keyboard without reading the whole thread. You beat me by 6 posts (#20). Well, at least I contributed a picture!

Seriously folks, this is a great movie. My daughter gave it to us as an anniversary present and is a part of my permanent collection.

This really is nothing new. My husband designed a model of a nuclear submarine for his science fair project in HS (his chemistry teacher had been part of the Manhatten Project) and got kicked out of the fair for his trouble. Seems that he inadvertently used classified material!

27 posted on 03/09/2003 1:38:53 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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