Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS, Tooele County — Hundreds of rockets will launch Saturday at the Utah Rocket Club's 20th annual HellFire rocket launch, where the payoff of several weeks of hard work can be seen in just a few seconds.
This year's launch is expected to be the biggest yet. Some of the rockets explode, while some end up right back on the ground, but the designers say it is pretty exhilarating.
Many of the participants build their rockets and engines from scratch.
"A lot of our members scratch-build, which means they take parts and they literally put together their rockets with their own knowledge," Utah Rocket Club secretary Heather Park said.
Rocket builder John Borget has participated in this event for more than 15 years. It is a long-time tradition for he and son Jaime.
"It's fun to launch the large rockets," Jaime Borget said. "It's a thrill every time."
Some rockets are well above 10 feet tall, burn up to $700 in fuel and go up to 25,000 feet in the air, but these rocket builders will tell you it's worth it.
"I've had a lot of adults tell me they've been doing this since they were seven, eight years old," Park said. "And then they get back into the club, and then they drag their kids and their wives, and we have a lot of wives who have been doing it, too."
Although it doesn't always go as planned, that is part of the challenge and the rush these rocket builders look for.
"If you knew it was going to work every single time, and it was always going to work perfect … it would probably take some of the fun out of it," John Borget said.
The public is welcome to attend any Rocket Club event and can find information about the HellFire rocket launch on the organization's website.
