Admit it, whenever you are in an air and space museum this thought comes into your mind, “With a wrench and pickup truck…”
We never follow up on ideas of a better use for that Titan rocket engine just sitting there. After all we want be able to come back to the museum and also we’d rather not go to jail. This week I made an exception. It’s OK, really, don’t call the police.
Two factors were involved: One, are needing to do rocket training and two we had two rockets on loan to the California Aerospace Museum for the last several years. The museum had been using the rockets for an education program, however the program was over. One pickup load later and the ML-2 rocket and the Big Red Rover Rocket are back at the shop. We also picked up the ML-1 Rocket that was being used for promotion by one of our sponsors.
All the rockets need a lot of work and TLC. They all might not fly again, but they will make excellent training platforms.