When our ward's Cub Master announced at Pack Meeting that our troop would be having a Space Derby in three weeks time, Rich and I were shocked. We had never even heard of a Space Derby, let alone feel confident in making THREE rocket ships in such a short time frame. The Pine Wood Derby nearly killed us this past spring. We could only hope this new race wouldn't require as much skill that cutting blocks of wood into cars demands.
The Space Derby is similar to the pinewood derby except that the models are miniature "rockets", propeller driven and powered by three rubber bands (though we only used two in our races) - that travel along a heavy fishing line or wire. The rockets are blocks of balsa wood that are sanded by the boys (meaning no knives or saws can be used to cut the wood) . Fins are glued to the rocket and a rubber band powered propeller is inserted in the middle, which needs to be wound. The Scout then races his rocket against other Scouts down a track of fishing line.
Trey, Josh and Matt's rockets weren't the most decorative ones of the bunch, but I was happy just to have something completed to race. Matt's fins were glued in the car on the way to baseball practice that was a hour before the Space Derby race. We held it up in the A/C to help it dry.
The Derby was held at the church. It was set up with four rockets racing each time, but each rocker would compete only against the rocket they were next to: line 1 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 4. It was a double elimination competition so each boy was able to race his rocket at least two times. Many leaders and dads had to help assist in winding the propellers and then carefully attach them to the wire. There were a few malfunctions when attaching them and getting them set up, which meant all four planes had to be rewound.
The boys did well and Josh got to the semi-final round. Matt made it to the quarter finals, but only the top three rockets got awards.
The boys had a great time and it was well worth the endless sanding that creating these rocket ships required.
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