@znexyish said:

Answer any you want

1) Who here has launched a rocket of their own (pause here for juvenile snickering) I have put together a model rocket but never launched one.

2) What kind of fuel did Howard use. I am wondering that maybe he used something he swiped from NASA causing his rocket blowing up prematurely (more pausing for juvenile snickering).

3) Favorite rocket if any or have you gone to watch a rocket/space launch ?

4) It brought to mind the Comic-Con episode where they stopped off to take photos and the one where they blew up Fenyman's van. Can't they get anything right ?

5) What would Mike Massimino say about this? How about Dimitri?

6) Also brought to mind was the book "Rocket Boys" and based on movie "October Sky", also about rocket launching. Involves teachers so maybe Murph is familiar.

7) Can Sheldon ever turn off his smarty pantsness with the whole correct countdown numbers ?

Oh how I like a multi-questioned thread!

1.Not me. I also rarely snicker.
2.At least he didn't use the fuel that Leonard stole for Joyce Kim. He would have blown up the whole set, and then I could no longer relish in their on-location shoot.
3.No favorite, but I re-watched Apollo 13 the other day. I'm glad I'm not currently trapped in outer space.
4.I was thinking the same thing! And what about Howie's less-than-stellar robot thing that was supposed to pitch the ball at the Angels game and went way too slow? At this point it might actually be funnier to see something WORK! We're used to his creations flopping. Huff, grumble, snicker, wait, not snicker, I said I didn't do that much, gripe, kick wall, pout.
5.They'd laugh their hineys off.
6.I don't know that book and I have never seen the movie. I do like artichokes, though, and if you turn them upside-down they look like the nose of a rocket, but make much tastier dips.
7.Yeah, I wanted to poke him with an artichoke for that.

1.) The elementary school that I went to, had a model rocket that had been assembled by a previous 6th-grade class but they never got it to work. At that time, you made your own "igniters" using a couple turns of nichrome wire around a toothpick or something. But if it didn't make good contact with the inside of the "engine" it didn't work. I made my own "squib" using a small piece of drinking straw with the igniter wire glued into one end, and a little bit of gunpowder to get things started. That worked. Later on you could buy pre-made igniters with a dab of some kind of flammable material already in place on the loops, for more reliable launches.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/21RIubyao8L.jpg

2.) Model rockets of the type Howard built as a child, and then built again in this episode WITH a child (Sheldon), used pre-made rocket "engine" cartridges that were available in various sizes and for single-stage or multi-stage use. The single-stage "engines" (also used for the final stage of a multi-stage) had a kind of "cap" at the top end that, when the engine finished burning, would pop out the parachute for bringing the rocket back down gently hopefully without damage. The first-stage "engines" had a pass-through to ignite the next stage "engines" when they were finished.

Such as:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--r7LOKd19UQ/VLc_wGQ5SII/AAAAAAAABNA/QkEut4WhXiI/s1600/IMG_2271.JPG

The rocket that Howard built himself , mentioned in the Staircase Implementation episode (with the flashbacks of Leonard first moving in with Sheldon etc.) did not use pre-made "cartridges" and that's why they were thinking of using Leonard's experimental formula with it, and wound up breaking the elevator.

3.) Delta Clipper. So much of what's going on now actually comes from work on and test flights of the Delta Clipper, but people don't even know it existed which is sad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X

That's my favorite rocket that actually existed, anyway. My favorite theoretical one - and one which could still be done if they'd just sit down and DO it - would be Orion (the original version.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)

https://newatlas.com/orion-project-atom-bomb-spaceship/49454/

7.) Sheldon can never stop being Sheldon, which is why people shouldn't claim he's "grown" and why Amy shouldn't marry him.

@znexyish said:

Answer any you want

1) Who here has launched a rocket of their own (pause here for juvenile snickering) I have put together a model rocket but never launched one.

2) What kind of fuel did Howard use. I am wondering that maybe he used something he swiped from NASA causing his rocket blowing up prematurely (more pausing for juvenile snickering).

3) Favorite rocket if any or have you gone to watch a rocket/space launch ?

4) It brought to mind the Comic-Con episode where they stopped off to take photos and the one where they blew up Fenyman's van. Can't they get anything right ?

5) What would Mike Massimino say about this? How about Dimitri?

6) Also brought to mind was the book "Rocket Boys" and based on movie "October Sky", also about rocket launching. Involves teachers so maybe Murph is familiar.

7) Can Sheldon ever turn off his smarty pantsness with the whole correct countdown numbers ?

1. Nope. Never had that sort of thing available to me; never saw one in a store ever.

Why did they give up after one try? They could have rebuilt it and tried it again. That part didn't make sense.

@znexyish said:

Answer any you want

1) My brother used to have model rockets when we were kids but he never let me launch one

2) The subtext is unavoidable (shudders)

3) Kenny the Jet Smith "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Smith"

4)NOPE

5)WHO?

6) The Right Stuff, 1983

7) Only if Laid back Sheldon can successfully execute a Coup D'etat

@CalabrianQueen said:

@znexyish said:

Answer any you want

5)WHO?

The astronauts that Howard went on the International Space Station with. Mike Massimino called Howard Froot Loops, and Dimitri was the Russian. They were both mean to him.