There were kids with rockets all over the place, but John Freese was still pretty secure about his position in the group.

“I’m the rocket master,” he said by way of introduction, as he and four Freedom Elementary classmates enjoyed the morning of their last day at STARBASE summer camp by firing hand-made rockets into the clear blue sky.

STARBASE is a Fort Sill facility designed to introduce youths to concepts ranging from robotics and coding to atoms and 3D printing. And, of course, rocketry. Freese, Hunter Wilkins, Winry Bernhardt, Novalee Gonzales and Kavish Chetty spent four days there in early June, learning a variety of science- and technology-related skills before heading off to sixth grade in the fall.

Thursday morning’s project: test the foot-high rockets they built earlier that week to see if the rocket’s fuel pack would fire, and whether the parachute would deploy and let the rocket land gently so it could be reused.

That reuse part surprised more than one student, as STARBASE instructor Katie Duffy said all they needed was a 9-volt battery and a motor.

“You can launch it again,” she said.

Freese took his role as rocket master seriously, explaining the major components to a successful rocket, including a proper connection. So, that might have been the problem, he mused, as he and other students watched several launch attempts fail.

“Maybe it’s the circuit,” he said.

Freese and his classmates may have spent a large part of Thursday morning on rockets, but their week was varied, to include coding, atoms and molecules, snap circuits and chain reactions, and 3D printing.

Gonzales said there was more rocketry coming. The class’ afternoon task would be an egg drop, meaning they had to ensure a design that would allow their fragile egg – playing the role of an astronaut returning from space – to land without, well, dying.

“You don’t want your egg to break,” she said.

Bernhardt was having fun with the rockets, but said she wanted to get back to her real love: coding. That tied back into the robotics activities she and classmates were enjoying before moving outside for the rocket launch.

“Totally different,” she said.

But, Bernhardt admitted it was fun to watch the rockets soar into the sky, with the eyes of Freedom students and a group of homeschool students watching each launch to see how high the rocket went and where it would land.

“Three, two, one, blast off,” they all chanted, as each rocket’s owner flipped the switch for launch, following with a loud cheer when the rocket left the pad.

Duffy said this summer’s camp was good to Freedom students: each rocket made it back to earth without damage.

“No losses this year,” she said.

Duffy herself had a near miss: her parachute didn’t deploy, meaning her rocket free-fell to earth. Even that was a lesson learned, as Duffy explained that her mistake was not opening the new parachute to check it before putting it inside the rocket body.

“That’s why I tested mine,” Freese said.