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Luverne High School band instructor Richard Owen gave his jazz band students a little extra lesson May 15.
Three days before the district closed for the summer, Owen and his students set up a launch pad on the west side of the school campus.
About a dozen rockets of varying sizes were constructed by the students or assembled from kits and were ready for their maiden flights.
For several weeks the students learned about rockets, design and flight stability.
“Some actual rocket science went into this course,” Owen said.
“There were some creative designs that took extra steps to make them stable enough to fly, but overall they were very successful.”
Each student passed a National Association of Rocketry quiz before participating in the Wednesday afternoon launch.
“I told them they could take it multiple times if necessary,” Owen said. “But they all had to get 100 percent on it to be able to participate in the launch.”
Because students used glue, paint and rocket repellent, each student also signed a waiver to participate.
Many parents watched the Wednesday afternoon launch event on the west side of the school campus.
Owen used his own hobby experience and equipment, showing the students how to correctly and safely launch rockets.
Students placed an igniter into the tail of each rocket after they added wadding to protect the parachute. They then attached the battery-powered igniters at each launch pad to the rocket.
At a five-second countdown, students pressed the controller, launching the rockets into the wind.
Wind speeds were calculated to accommodate the parachute opening so the rocket would float back to the ground near the launch area.
Winds, however, were twice the predicted 4 to 6 miles per hour.
“We did pretty well at getting them to land in the field and were lucky to have an open space like that near the school,” Owen said.
One rocket, dubbed “Big Red,” suffered a parachute failure and plunged nose first into the soft ground.
The launch and rocket construction was a joint effort between Xavier Carbonneau, Matthew Jelken and John Miller.
The nose of the rocket plunged about seven inches into the soft round. The rocket crumbled into pieces around the plastic nose cone.
“It took me 20 seconds to get it out of the ground,” Miller said.
Students also witnessed a large rocket launch.
Due to its size and the height it could reach, Owen was required to notify the Luverne Municipal Airport, which issued a Notice to Airmen. A NOTAM tells pilots about the time of the rocket launch and its location.
Owen suggested the rocketry class after the jazz band wrapped up its performances several weeks ago.
The jazz band practiced during one of the middle-high school’s designated Flex Time sessions.
Flex Time is the extra half hour the district built into the school day for the next two years to accommodate this summer’s longer construction timeframe.
From 2 to 2:30 p.m. each school day, students and staff completed learning labs, communicated one-on-one or completed group enrichment activities such as the jazz band practice and rocketry class.