Sources:

• Lego-13 Launched, Action Figure, October 1998.
• Engineering diagrams for Lego-13, Pattigorie Rocketworks, 1998.

Cut four holes 1/8 inch in diameter, aligned 90 degrees apart, 3/4 inch from the aft end. The holes should be just large enough to thread the steel machine screw into. Soak the edge of each hole with CA glue. When the glue is dry, thread the steel screw into each hole again to mold the hole into shape. Sand interior and exterior sufaces around holes flat.

Use CA to glue the 3 1/4 inch length of BT-80 body tube to nose cone, Align the 1 inch holes in the tube with the 1 inch holes in the nose cone's shoulder.

Tie one end of shock cord to loop in Kevlar® line.

• 4 inches BT-50 or heavy duty D engine mount
• engine hook
• 2 BT-50/BT-80 centering rings

• 7 inches BT-20
• BT-20/BT-80 centering ring2 BT-20/BT-50 centering rings
• braided Kevlar® line

• 14 1/4 inches BT-80

• 3/32 inch bass plywood

• 2 inches 3/16 inch launch lug
• 20 inches 1/4 inch shock cord
• 12 inch parachute

Saturday, October 3, 1998; Amesbury, Massachusetts, USA. Lego-13 whooshed off the launch pad today, lofting astronauts Emily and John to an estimated altitude of some 80 meters. After six and half seconds of flight, the last in a heart stopping plunge back toward terra firma, the ejection charge fired, separating the astronaut's capsule from the rest of the rocket and freeing the recovery system. Floating gently under a bright red canopy, the two astronauts returned safely to earth and were soon recovered by ground personnel. The rocket body, it's decent slowed by a second parachute, was also safely retrieved.

"Action figures have long played a substantial role in flights of imagination, not only in space but in underwater and other fantasy settings. Today we have demonstrated that the power of imagination can be the foundation for real life adventure, as well." said Emily in an interview shortly after her spacecraft had returned from its historic mission. "What a blast," added John.

Although it was not the first flight for an action figure in a rocket, today's flight was significant because Lego-13 was designed from the start for the two astronauts. The rocket's space capsule contained seating and instrumentation designed specifically for its occupants. "In the past, action figures have been tossed into generic payload sections, often alongside insects, as just another kind of cargo. Either that, or they had to bring their own parachute and bail out at apogee," said Emily. "I could go for that," added John.

It was the second launch, and the first manned flight, of the brightly colored rocket, following a successful unmanned test flight made earlier in the day. Initially, there had been some fears that the mission would be scrubbed due to concerns about the weather. "The Amesbury launch site is almost always breezey, but when we arrived this morning, the wind seemed too strong for a rocket with a slow liftoff, which is what we expected from this one." said Ed, a representative of Pattigorie Rocketworks, the prime contractor for Lego-13. "As the day wore on, however, we noticed periods of relative calm and that's when we decided to go for it."

Although the motors used in both of today's flights performed flawlessly, there had been some concern about whether they would release the rocket's parachutes. "Estes was our sub[contractor] for the motors," said Ed. "We chose their D12 [one of the most poweful rocket motors made by Estes] because of the rocket's weight, but all year there have been reports of D12's with weak ejection charges." [An engine with a weak ejection charge may fail to release the rocket's parachutes, causing the rocket to crash into the ground instead of landing gently.] "In fact, we had a rocket in a different project totally destroyed in August. But Estes was willing to work with us, they sent us a batch of new motors and we used two of them today." In addition to using new motors, Lego-13 was designed to minimize the volume of space the ejection charge would have to pressurize.

A second manned flight is scheduled for later this month, again at the Amesbury launch site. Launch support at Amesbury is provided by Central Massachusetts Spacemodeling Society (www.cmass.org).