To: The World

From: Rocket City USA

Re: We ARE the Rocket City.

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville launched at and maybe into the Guinness Book of World Records on Tuesday, simultaneously firing 4,923 of 5,000 rockets to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch 50 years ago.

Here’s the launch...now @RocketCenterUSA awaiting verification the record had been set. pic.twitter.com/I0AKib5IdC — Paul Gattis (@paul_gattis) July 16, 2019

The event on grounds near the museum attracted a crowd of about an estimated 2,500 spectators – including hundreds of Space Camp students, Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, Marshall Space Flight Center Director Jody Singer and Wernher von Braun’s daughter Margrit.

“He would be thrilled,” Margrit said when asked what her father, who conceived and designed the Saturn V moon rocket, would have thought.

Hey world, here are the 5,000 rockets set to be launched at 8:32 am at ⁦@RocketCenterUSA⁩ in Huntsville. When they clear the tower, it’ll be a world record. pic.twitter.com/2mjlfAeD2v — Paul Gattis (@paul_gattis) July 16, 2019

With a pre-launch playlist of music from 1969, the launch went off a couple of minutes after the scheduled launch at 8:32 a.m. – the exact moment the Saturn V lifted from Cape Canaveral on July 16, 1969 to begin its journey to ferry the first men to the surface of the moon.

Worden turned the key to prime the rockets, and 12-year-old Lillian Duran -- attending her fifth Space Camp -- flipped the ignition switch to launch all 5,000 rockets.

Official word that a record had been set is expected within weeks. The previous Guinness World Record of 4,231 model rockets were launched at Teylingen College during a European Space Science Convention in the Netherlands, in summer 2018.

Randall Robinson, one of the organizers of the event Tuesday, said 5,000 model rockets were readied, 77 did not launch -- a success rate of better than 98 percent. Robinson said he is 98 percent confident the 4,923 sent skyward met the Guinness record requirements.

To achieve the record, the Rocket Center said it must:

use commercially available rockets and build them following basic manufacturer guidelines.

pass 30 meters (or about 100 feet) in altitude

have independent specialist verify the counting method. An independent specialist is anyone who can claim a general level of experience or knowledge in the specific field of our record attempt (someone who has experience with model rocketry or aerospace engineering.)

Part of the verification process is determining that a record number of rockets exceeded the 100-feet threshold, Robinson said. Rocket center officials expect to know the number of rockets it believes soared at least 100 feet into the air later this week but it will be 12 to 16 weeks before formal confirmation from Guinness arrives that a record was set, according to Robinson.

“I think it’s a huge deal for several reasons,” Robinson said of the anticipated record. “We in Huntsville especially like to talk about what this city means to NASA, what the city means to the space program. This is another little notch in telling the world ‘We matter’ and this is why we do this kind of stuff. Because when you think about it, 50 years ago today, we actually set out on that journey to put somebody on the surface of something that wasn’t our own planet. Nobody had ever done it before.

“To have the Rocket City hold the rocket record, I think it’s a little poetic.”

The rocket center said its staff worked with Redstone Test Center to develop a verification method for the altitude requirement and partnered with the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Systems Management and Production Center to get video of the rockets passing the altitude barrier. Drones and a camera-mounted weather balloon stationed at 100 feet were used to verify rockets passing that altitude.

The rockets were Estes Pathfinder rockets that are 15-inches in length, weigh 1.4 ounces total, with 2.6 grams of propellant each, according to the rocket center. They are made of paper with plastic fins and nose cone.

The rocket center said that to prepare for the launch, 178 volunteers worked 696 hours over 13 sessions. Twenty volunteers worked 75 hours to build the wood frames on which the rockets were placed.

More of our coverage of the Apollo 11 anniversary

Updated today, July 16, 2019, at 10:02 a.m. with new information throughout.

Updated today, July 16, 2019, at 1:08 p.m. with new information throughout.