Saturday, Day 2, the final day for North Texas Rockets 2026 launch series was mission complete by this evening, with all rockets launched by 4:47p.m. Twenty rockets from four different schools left the rails today. These schools included Hollenstein HS, Petrolia HS, Gary HS and Ranchview HS.
Weather for Friday started out with heavy fog but it burned off by 9:00 a.m. The rest of the day had minimal clouds, bright sunshine and a nice breeze that kept the bugs away unlike yesterday. A threat of severe storms with tornadoes and hail roamed the area during the evening as we finished the last launch and packed up the site. We managed to skirt them as we hurried to Mineral Wells.
First launches blasted off shortly after 9:00 a.m. this morning. After the first volley of five, the pad kept the rockets flying in a continuous set each time the rails were full. The only lag times were waiting for later rockets to clear Stages 2 and 3 and successfully make it to the pad.
A significant event for the day was the awarding of the Captain Gene Garret Scholarship of $500 to Hollenstein student, Isabella Prefontaine. Executive Director, Rebekah Hyatt made the presentation of the award after handing Isabella and her team the aft end of their recovered ballistic rocket. Isabella was unaware before the presentation that she had been selected to recieve the award, so she was quite surprised and pleased, hugging both of her teachers and Ms. Hyatt.
Out of 20 rockets launched, only 5 were not recovered. All the rockets left the rails and had good flights, but many did not open and come down under chute.
A few spiraled before blowing apart and landing scattered over the range. There were a few lawn darts as well. This made it a bit challenging for recovery teams to locate, but they did an amazing job. Half of today’s test vehicles were transonic of which one was a Mach 1.2. These faster rockets always present issues for recovery. One was located on a ranch past our blanket of approved landowners for us to search, so unfortunately, we were unable to retrieve it today.
All the teams were a lot of fun to work with, interview and have as participants. Some were quite entertaining. All had high marks for the program and suggested that upcoming students would benefit by being in the class. Patience, teamwork, and getting to know their collogues were among some of the most repeated comments about take aways from the program.
Most also cited issues with body tubes, altimeters, fins, sanding, and time constraints as there most difficult hurdle to overcome, one team had a very unique problem. Gary High School’s rocket # 50, named “Fraulein” was fashioned after the old war planes and followed suit with a pin up girl and the nose. This was their most challenging hurdle, to find one the teacher, and principal would approve as appropriate enough to ride their rocket into the sky. They said they went through several before getting approval.
Hollenstein’s rocket # 44, 3D printed a foam-lined container for an egg to see if they could have it survive the flight, landing and recovery. It was fully intact and still raw. They cracked it to see if flight had changed the contents.
Another Hollenstein rocket #46 had strain gauges as their payload. Unfortunately, when the rocket separated for chute the gages separated and were lost. The students said they were every they were, they were still working as confirmed by a tracking app for them on one of the students’ phones.
Other interesting payloads of the day were a “flux capacitor,” playdough, and Chips Ahoy Chocolate cookies. All survived and were recovered. The kids ate the cookies on camera which they said were really hot.
After Mission Complete, we finished site cleanup by 8:00 p.m. and the Team left the site to find a dinner tonight at Chili’s in Mineral Wells, after which most went to Best Western to crash for the night. Except me, I did not crash yet. I am still writing this article and will still post pictures to Facebook when I am done with this.
In the morning, the crew will meet for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. in the hotel lobby. Afterwards all will head home and call it a wrap for NTX until next year. Then we will begin preparations for the next sequence at the Central Texas/Stonewall launches this coming week, April 30th through the 2nd. A contingency day is built into Sunday, May 3rd if needed.
Well, I survived my first two days and first launch event as the media coordinator. I had a great intermittent helper, in Jaxon. He was a real trooper, adjusting cameras for me in between helping recovery and pad.
It has been a long day, and traveling makes me tired so I best get my pictures posted so that I can get some much-needed sleep as I am fighting to stay awake to write this tonight. The rest of the SystemsGo team are already fast asleep. It is well deserved. They all worked hard to make this a momentous event for the students, and they will do it again soon, twice more.
Please also forgive me if there are any errors or editing faux pas in this article tonight. I have no one to pre-read or edit, and my internal editor keeps falling asleep at the keyboard! I might have to fire her, or at the very least send her to bed soon!
Pictures are from today are on SystemsGo Facebook page, as well as my Facebook page. They can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/SystemsGoEducation/
https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow
North Texas was the second launch in the 2026 series and is followed by launches in Central Texas/Stonewall and Southeast Texas/Smith Point.
The launch dates, locations, and schools are always listed for your convenience at http://www.systemsgo.org/events/ .
A live feed for each launch is available at www.systemsgo.org , or at the following link: Rockets 2026 Live Stream
New for this year, a recovery map link will be available for the schools to see pictures uploaded by recovery teams showing where and how their rockets were recovered. 2026 Recovered Rockets Data
More event details will be available here in upcoming days as events get closer. Daily reports featuring schedule links, school names, results, pictures and some editorial content will be posted during the events if information is available.
Please watch the SystemsGo website, SystemsGo Facebook page, SystemsGo Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/SystemsGoNews and this blog for upcoming information on theses events.
www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org . Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.
Hope to see you at the launches!
#RidetheSkies, #EyesontheSkies #ItisRocketscience #SystemsGoRocketTrail #TexasRocketTrail#Rockets2026 #EyesToTheSkies
On the Wings of Angels 