Orange Bullet™

In 1961, Vern Estes designed the first Estes model rocket packaged for sale as a complete kit: the Astron Scout™. Before launching the Astron Scout, Vern Estes created a never-before-seen prototype. This prototype, named the Orange Bullet, used metal weights glued to the end of the fin tips to shift the center of gravity (CG) back after the engine popped out at apogee, resulting in the rocket tumbling gently instead of streamlining in nose first. While the design functioned, Vern and fellow rocketeer G. Harry Stine decided they could achieve the same thing without ejecting the engine. In a later version that became the classic Astron Scout, they used the weight of the rocket engine itself to shift the CG backwards. Orange bullet sold tens of thousands of kits over its long lifetime and inspired countless young people to pursue technical careers. Sixty years later, Bill Stine, G. Harry Stine's son and current Estes Vice President decided it was time for the Orange Bullet rocket to take flight. Estes' first rocket in the Designer Signature Series and the first complete kit Vern Estes ever designed, the Orange Bullet.