(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(BIKE BELL RINGS)
Oh, hey guys, check it out!
Weird but true, this rocket building facility we're in
is big enough to hold 31 professional football fields.
It's gotta be big, they're working on some of the biggest rockets ever.
CHARLIE: And that's our goal today,
to figure out how to build a better rocket.
So get ready, 'cause it's time...
BOTH: For Weird But True!
CHARLIE: Did you know there are more stars in the sky
than grains of sand on the whole planet?
Whoa!
-This is incredible. -I know, right?
-CHARLIE: Charlie here. -Yeah!
-CARLY: Carly here. -Yes!
-CHARLIE: We're best friends. -BOTH: Oh, let's go.
-CARLY: We live here, in Chicago. -CHARLIE: With a little imagination...
For the rest of time!
CARLY: And a whole lot of exploring...
CARLY: (ON RADIO) This is so epic!
CHARLIE: We're discovering just how weird the world can be.
-Hey! -We made it.
CARLY: This is unreal.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)
CHARLIE AND CARLY: Rockets!
(LUCY DINGS)
Hey, hey, breaking news! Breaking news!
-Hey guys, Charlie here. -Carly here.
-What's going on? -I have no idea.
Hey, hey, Lucy, what's up?
Welcome to Earth News Tonight, I'm Chris Rivers.
Today's top story, Patrick... yes, that Patrick,
has successfully constructed a Blast-Off Moon Boomer 9000.
The most amazing model rocket the world has ever seen.
(PATRICK YELPS)
World record, baby!
CHRIS RIVERS: We send you now to our field reporter, Katherine Ann,
for an exclusive interview. Katherine?
Here he is, folks.
Patrick, not only did you build the Blast-Off Moon Boomer 9000,
but you beat the town record, almost doubled it.
Can I have your comments on that?
-I mean, listen to the people. -CROWD: Patrick, Patrick, Patrick!
They're chanting my name,
calling me the best builder in the entire world.
Their words, not mine.
There you have it, Chris. Back to you.
I'm Chris Rivers, we'll see you next time on Earth News Tonight.
Wait, we've been the best builders in town since like... forever.
We've got competition now. We must respond!
What do you mean?
We need to build a bigger and better rocket to beat Patrick's.
-So we can be on top again. -All right,
you know anything about rocket building?
No! But I do know that, weird but true, a smartphone has more processing power
than all the computers that NASA used to put a man on the moon.
-Whoa! Really? -Yeah.
So we should be able to figure something out with the stuff
-we have lying around here. -Oh, definitely.
All right guys, I guess that means today, we're unraveling the world of...
(DRUM ROLL)
CHARLIE AND CARLY: Rockets!
(SIGHS) Nothing spurs innovation like a little competition.
-Hit me with rocket basics, Charlie. -Okay.
Here we go!
Behold! A rocket.
Rockets are long cylindrical shapes that get launched into the sky.
They use all sorts of things to propel themselves,
from baking soda and vinegar to... air.
But here's how a space rocket works.
They have engines that convert fuel into gas,
that shoots out of this end, right here, pushing the rocket
in the opposite direction.
There you go, that's a rocket.
Now we have to figure out how to build one of these, so we can beat Patrick.
Carly, you keep saying that, we gotta beat Patrick,
but Patrick's our friend.
Can't this just be something we do for fun?
But Charlie, don't you want to be the best builders in town again?
You know what, let me tell you a little story
to get you in the competitive spirit.
How about a tale about another rocket building competition.
1955, the US and Soviet Union, which included Russia,
were in a fierce competition to conquer space.
The Soviet Union took the lead right off the bat,
when they built a rocket that launched the first satellite into space,
four months before the US.
Then they launched a man into space...
three weeks before the US.
The countries were neck and neck,
but the Soviet Union was always slightly ahead
and the US was tired of being in second place.
So, the President stepped in.
We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
CARLY: The US made a bold plan to build a new rocket
that could take a man all the way to the Moon.
July 16, 1969.
The largest rocket ever built, the Saturn V, was launched.
Four days later, the US became the first country
to put a man on the Moon.
The United States finally took the lead and no matter how hard they tried,
the Soviet Union could not catch up.
The US won the space race to the Moon.
-The US was really behind the whole time? -Yeah, till the very end.
Five decades later, we are in our own space race, Charlie.
The whole world has seen what Patrick can do with his Moon Boomer 9000,
and now they wait on the edge of their seats
for Carly and Charlie to respond.
(IN BOSTON ACCENT) We choose to launch model rockets,
not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
Because launching model rockets serves to measure the best of our skills,
because that challenge is one we accept and one we intend to win.
(CROWD CHEERS)
Whoa, Carly, that was incredible.
-Thank you. -I'm totally on board now.
How are we gonna build a rocket to beat Patrick's record?
Hm, uh...
Let's look at some examples for inspiration.
Oh, you got it.
Introducing, the biggest, coolest,
most amazing rockets of all time!
First up, we have... the Vostok 1!
CHARLIE: This Soviet rocket took the very first man to space in 1961.
It stands at 125 feet tall.
Weird but true, it's about the height of seven giraffes.
Next up, the Space Shuttle!
CHARLIE: NASA used space shuttles like this
on over 130 successful space flights.
Weird but true, at 184 feet,
they stood about as tall as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
And finally, the biggest, heaviest,
most amazing rocket ever built,
the Saturn V!
CHARLIE: This rocket took humans to the Moon in 1969.
Weird but true, it's about the height of Big Ben
with a brachiosaurus standing on top.
The tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever built by humans ever.
All these rockets are, you know, different sizes but,
I'm seeing a lot of similarities here. When you boil it down,
all three rockets have the same core design, and here's the thing...
model rockets have that same design, too.
Here, whip this up, I'll show you what I mean.
All of these rockets have a cylindrical shape.
It's very aerodynamic.
CHARLIE: Hey, this model rocket does, too.
They also all have fins that help them fly straight in the air.
CHARLIE: This model rocket has some fins made out of wood.
Finally, all these rockets have some sort of engine at the bottom
to propel them into the sky.
CHARLIE: The model rocket comes with a model rocket engine.
When the engine is lit, it shoots the rocket high into the air.
See, model rockets are based off the same design as big rockets.
But this won't do for us.
We're trying to be the best builders in town,
-we can't launch a rocket from a kit. -True.
We need to build our own!
(DING)
-Ta-da! -Cool, right?
So we've got a long, cylindrical, aerodynamic shape,
fins for stability, and an engine.
-We got ourselves a rocket. -This looks amazing.
You really think it could beat Patrick's record?
(SIGHS) Only one way to find out. Everybody, it's time for a rocket launch.
-Ready to go. -All right, perfect.
Okay, guys, if you ever launch a model rocket
with a real model rocket engine like ours,
get excited, 'cause it's gonna go super high.
But remember, the engine's gonna burn up and get really hot,
so we need to make sure we have a safe launch.
First, we're gonna call in an extra adult to monitor all safety activities.
Bob!
-Launch ready? -CARLY: Yup!
Awesome.
-I like your fire extinguisher. -Thanks.
Next, we're gonna trigger our rocket using an ignition system
that we'll press from a safe distance away.
Looks good.
Finally, we're gonna get some protective eyewear
and use a super, super loud countdown
so that everybody in the area knows exactly what's going on.
-Ready? -Let's do it!
Three...
ALL: Two, one.
ALL: Blast off!
CARLY: Oh, no, no, no!
(CRASHES)
Oh, no, no, no, no, no!
No, no, no, no, no, no.
-What happened? -I don't know!
The launch was going so well and then it swerved to the left
and took a nosedive into the ground.
CHARLIE: (SIGHS) Well, there's goes our shot at the record, Carly.
I mean, Patrick just might be the best builder in town.
Wait, Charlie, not so fast.
This is just like the space race between the US and the Soviet Union.
The US was behind the whole time, but they never gave up,
and neither will we.
All right, so... back to the books? (EXHALES)
I have a better idea.
We need help, and I think I know where we can get some.
The Stennis Space Center.
Right now, they're working on rocket engines for NASA.
-Whoa! Really? -Yeah!
All right guys, looks like we're headed to Stennis Space Center
to learn how to build a record-breaking rocket.
We'll see you guys there? Perfect! We'll see you soon.
CARLY: We're off to visit some rocket scientists from NASA
stationed by the southern border of Mississippi near the Gulf of Mexico.
Weird but true, the Saturn V rocket
burned more than 25,000 pounds of fuel every second.
-Hey guys, we made it! -We're in Mississippi
at the John C. Stennis Space Center.
CHARLIE: Weird but true, NASA has been testing
rocket engines here since the 1960s.
Right now, they're working on the SLS, the Space Launch System.
It's the next rocket that's gonna take people to the Moon.
This is a perfect place for us
to figure out how to make our rocket better. Let's check it out.
CHARLIE: Our tour starts with Mike McDaniel,
for an up-close look at the design of the rocket engines that are built here.
His favorite weird but true fact is, astronauts can grow a couple inches taller
in space because there's no gravity.
CARLY: So, this engine is going into space
-in a couple years? -MIKE MCDANIEL: Yes, it is.
It's going on Artemis III, which is the mission that's gonna
carry the first woman...
-(GASPS) -...and the next man back to the Moon.
-Whoa! -What!
MIKE: Every mission is gonna have four of these RS-25 engines
on the bottom of it, it's gonna be over two million pounds
-of liquid rocket propulsion. -CHARLIE: Man!
-That's wild. -CARLY: That is so powerful!
The engines we're looking at are part of the booster core,
which is responsible for pushing the rocket
off the launch pad, toward space and outside Earth's gravity.
CARLY: This looks unbelievably complicated.
Can you describe some of what we're looking at here?
This box right here with all the cables coming into it,
that's actually the brains of the engine, we call it a controller.
-CARLY: Wow. -And then these large ducts up here,
one of them is carrying liquid oxygen which is the cryogenic,
the other one is liquid hydrogen, another cryogenic.
Cool science word, "cryogenic". That's a material that's extremely cold.
Normally when we think about
liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen coming together,
what do we think about?
-Water. -Water.
Water! Yes, and so the question is, how do we make rocket fuel out of water?
CHARLIE: We're talking some serious rocket science now.
Mike explains how they combine these two basic elements to cause an explosion.
But that's not the craziest part...
MIKE: When that cools, the exhaust, it's just water. You can drink it.
CHARLIE: Wait, during a launch,
when you see what looks like smoke billowing everywhere,
it's just water vapor?
-It's just steam. Yes. -That's wild.
Guys, weird but true, this engine is so powerful,
it could light up 430 professional baseball stadiums.
That's a lot of power.
CARLY: Now it's time to bounce over to the enormous assembly facility
that builds the actual rockets.
-CHARLIE: Whoa! -CARLY: Whoa!
-Hello! -Hello!
-(VOICE ECHOES)
See this, right here, is the SLS, the entire rocket launch system.
And hey, if you look over here,
those are the engines that we saw over at Stennis.
CARLY: Alex Cagnola is gonna show us how rockets get assembled.
His favorite weird but true fact,
is that fruit flies were the first living organisms
intentionally launched into space.
Welcome to Michoud Assembly Facility.
This is a scale model of our entire facility.
-CHARLIE: Wow. -CARLY: This is so big,
it's like a little city.
ALEX CAGNOLA: The actual size is roughly 44 acres,
which is the size of 31 full size football fields.
CARLY: And it's all under one roof.
So it must take forever to get from there to there.
Yeah, some people like to walk but you'll see golf carts,
most of 'em ride bikes around the facility.
-There's one. -There's one right there.
(ALEX CHUCKLES)
CHARLIE: It's no wonder this place is so big,
it's got to be massive to accommodate this guy,
the Vertical Assembly Center.
ALEX: It stands about 170 feet.
This is where we come, and we weld all of our barrels together
to make our tanks for the rocket.
CHARLIE: What, do you kinda stack all the barrels on top of each other?
ALEX: Right, you'll stack these in here and you'll do a circular weld
around each joint all the way up until it's completed in the actual tank.
After the tanks have been assembled, they'll seal it
and then they'll prepare it for testing.
CHARLIE: Alex says that more than a thousand companies
from all over the world
participate in making these new rockets and testing them.
And it's been that way for a long time.
A big part of our success as a space program
is our collaboration with other countries.
All 136 external tanks for the shuttle program
were built and fabricated here.
Having that different expertise from countries around the world
really helped us be successful.
The US is collaborating with a bunch of other countries?
-ALEX: That's right. -CARLY: I had no idea.
CARLY: In 1969, the space race ended when the US reached the Moon.
NEIL ARMSTRONG: That’s one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
CARLY: But in the 1970s, something crazy happened,
the US and the Soviet Union decided to work on a rocket project together.
Six years after the space race ended...
the United States and Soviet Union each launched a rocket,
that eventually met in space
and connected together as a symbol to the world
that the US and Soviet rivalry was over.
Since then, space programs from Europe, Japan, Canada, and all over the world
have worked together on projects like the International Space Station
to explore the wonders of space.
-It seems like just an exciting time... -Yeah.
-...for space travel right now. -Yeah.
It is probably one of the most exciting times we've had in a very long time.
CARLY: We're learning that even if you build the perfect rocket,
it won't make it to the launch pad without one critical step,
that NASA engineer, Tommy Carroll, is gonna show us.
-CHARLIE: All right, Tommy, where are we? -(CARLY LAUGHS)
We're on top of the A-2 test stand.
The A-2 test stand was built back in the '60s to test the Saturn V rocket.
-CARLY: Whoa! -CHARLIE: Saturn V, that's the big one...
-TOMMY CARROLL: Right. -CHARLIE: ...that took people to the Moon.
That was tested here?
Tested right here on A-2 and A-1 next door.
Why do you even need to go through the process of testing them?
They do a great job of putting those engines together,
everything is near as perfect as can be,
but we still need to run it all at one time
to see what it's gonna do in real life.
So testing is an extremely important part of the rocket building process?
Absolutely. You wanna know what it's gonna do before you try to fly it.
We could've used some testing on our own model rocket launch.
Yeah, we did zero testing and it was a poor launch.
-Had zero positive results. -Yeah, it crashed very...
-strong. -Immediately.
How can we test our rocket?
TOMMY: We can hook you up.
I want to show you the string test.
What you're trying to find out is is your rocket balanced?
The easiest way to do that is you tie a string onto your rocket
and then you can try spinning it around and see what it does
and that'll tell you how you can adjust
the center of gravity, the weight inside of your rocket.
You wanna give it a shot?
-Let's do it. -Yeah.
Right now, as I'm spinning this around, it's not flying the correct way.
So the nose, which should be in front, is actually in the back,
and the fins, which should be in the back, are in the front.
What that means is that this rocket is not balanced,
-right, Tommy? -TOMMY: That's right.
Can we try it out, see if it's true?
-Sure. -We are gonna test our rocket
by putting it right here
and we're gonna move air through it by stomping on a plastic bottle
that we're gonna put over here. So rocket, please.
All right. Three, two, one.
(CHARLIE GRUNTS)
-ALL: Oh! -TOMMY: Oh, no.
-CHARLIE: Okay. -(CARLY SCOFFS)
So that was a bad flight. But it was expected, right?
That's exactly what we said it was gonna do with that string test.
There are two fixes to make this rocket more balanced, Tommy says.
We can either make wider, broader fins or add weight to the top.
When we do that, theoretically, it'll be balanced and it'll go straight up.
I say we add some weight 'cause I've got some clay.
-Wanna do that? -Yeah, let's grab it.
-Little piece of clay. -CARLY: In there...
-Okay, think it's in. -CHARLIE: All right, time to spin, ready?
This time, if you look at it and it levels out,
-you'll see that the nose... -CARLY: Oh, yeah.
-...is pointing more forward. -TOMMY: There it is, yeah.
And the tail is on the back as it should be,
so Tommy this is passing the string test, correct?
-It is, you got it. -Yeah.
-All right, Carly, I'm gonna stop. -CARLY: Yup.
And then let's launch this guy.
-(TOMMY LAUGHS) -Whoa!
-I got you. -Okay.
ALL: Oh!
-CHARLIE: Yeah! Wow! -CARLY: Yes!
-Great! Good job. Perfect. -Look at it, perfect.
Straight up and down.
-And that's what we thought would happen. -Yeah, so you tested it,
you made some adjustments, and then you came back and you retested it
and it went beautifully.
-CARLY: That was awesome. -TOMMY: That was great. Yeah.
-That was fascinating. -Mm-hmm.
We learned so much. Testing is so important.
CHARLIE: Definitely, I mean, just seeing how they assemble everything
inside the factory, you can tell how important it is
to put your stuff together
and choose your materials in a very precise way.
We need to go back to HQ and do a complete redesign.
I think that's the best idea. We'll see you there?
Perfect, see you soon.
-All right, that should do it. -Okay. Check this out.
We rebuilt our old design to figure out exactly why this rocket crashed.
Here's what we found out.
CHARLIE: We tested our old rocket using the string test and...
it wasn't balanced.
That's why it shot up into the air, shot off to the side
and crashed into the ground.
So we made some changes.
We added some weight to the nose cone to balance it out,
plus, we performed more pre-flight tests,
just like they do at the Stennis Space Center.
I guess that means it's time for another launch.
CARLY: We based our design off the best rockets ever built.
If this rocket can't beat Patrick's Blast-Off Moon Boomer 9000,
nothing can.
-Goggles on! -Check!
-Ignition system primed. -CARLY: Check!
-Extra adult on the premises. -Check!
Never launch a model rocket without adult supervision.
All right, we're ready.
Okay, here we go. Three...
ALL: Two, one. Blast off!
CHARLIE AND CARLY: Whoa!
More than two hundred, more than three hundred!
CHARLIE: Oh!
We did it!
-We're back on top! -We're back on top!
(ALL CHEER)
Yes!
-Woo! -Yeah!
Chris Rivers, Earth News Tonight.
Move aside, Patrick, the leaders in crafting and building
have regained their throne.
Charlie and Carly have obliterated Patrick's record
and our very own Katherine Ann is standing by
with the former record holder now. Katherine?
Thanks, Chris.
Patrick, just a few short days ago you were at the highest of highs.
How do you feel now that some of your closest friends have stolen your crown?
First off, I wanna congratulate Charlie and Carly, they're amazing builders,
they're amazing at everything.
I thought this was my chance to be good at something,
to be special, but... I'm just Patrick...
second best kinda guy.
Sorry about that, Pat.
Back to you at the studio, Chris.
-(GROANS) What have we done? -CHARLIE: Yeah.
Patrick just wanted to be good at something.
Charlie, I was so focused on us winning our space race
that I didn't even think about Patrick's feelings.
What do we do now?
We could do what the US did when they won.
What's that?
Remember, the US worked with the Soviet Union on a rocket project.
I mean, competition is fun, but it's like we learned at Michoud,
if we all work together, we could build something even better.
That's a great idea.
Hey, hey, Lucy. Call Patrick.
All right, guys, looks like we got a new project on our hands,
building a rocket with our friend, Patrick.
But thanks so much for stopping by! Come by again when we discover more things
-that are weird... -But true.
-We'll see you guys later. -Oh, hey, guys.
What's going on?
Hey Patrick, you wanna come over and build a rocket?
Me? That'd be amazing. I'll be there in 30 seconds!
This is gonna be fun.
We need some string.
-We have more string. -Somewhere.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
-Engine's ready? -Ready.
-Altimeter primed? -Primed.
PATRICK: All right, inaugural launch of the Saturn Boomer 6000
in three, two, one!
ALL: Oh!
-(CHARLIE LAUGHS) -(CARLY LAUGHS)
CARLY: Where did it go?
-We did it! -We did it!
-Yeah! -Yeah!
(ALL CHEERING)
-Yes! -We did it!