2023/2024
Collection 19

The Mouse-tronaut

1964; Okeene, Oklahoma, USA

It was 1964, and my sixteen-year-old grandpa was at school. He was listening to the instructions for the science fair when the bell rang for lunch. For the rest of the day he was thinking about what to do for the science fair. He was in awe of rockets at the time, so he figured he could build a rocket and launch it.

He bought the parts and built his rocket. He went and grabbed eggs to test it. The first launch cracked the egg. He grabbed some sponges for reinforcement, and put them on top of the rocket for cushion. He tried it again, and the egg came down safely, but he did more testing before the final launch.

He lived next to a farm that had a silo with a broken window. The silo was infested with mice. He walked to the loading area and found the broken window. He had to wear gloves to avoid broken glass. Catching the mouse was easy, but he knew it was going to be hard to launch the rocket and bring the mouse back down alive.

He kept the mouse in custody for two weeks before the big launch. In that time he made a poster explaining the experiment. Once the time came, he walked to a vast golf course with the mouse and the rocket in hand. He set up a camera to record evidence for the science fair judges. He set up the rocket and put the mouse in the cockpit. After it was all secure, he set it off. The rocket took off silently, but as fast as a cheetah, and it scared him.

The rocket’s parachute worked, but he wondered if the mouse lived. He found the top half of the rocket and touched it. Roll, roll, thump, it went. He tried again. Roll, roll, thump. “Shoot, I killed it,” he thought. He was going to collect the rocket when he heard tiny scratching. The mouse lived! He was so happy that he couldn’t control himself. He turned in his video and went home.

The next day he went to school and realized that he had won. He got the blue ribbon and a trip to the Houston Space Center. There he learned a lot about rockets and got to talk to a real astronaut! He now works as an engineer.

Levi Dill; Missouri, USA

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