Estes Mercury Redstone Model Rocket Facebook Page

From the "Estes Mercury Redstone Model Rocket" Facebook page

The Estes Mercury Redstone now has its own fan appreciation page on Facebook. It's not an official Estes-run page, but one created by an admirer of the rocket.

The Mercury Redstone kit is a recent re-release from Estes, and is part of what seems to be their return to a line of sport scale or semi-scale models of historic NASA rockets. The Mercury Redstone has been out for maybe a year now, and has been recently been joined by the Little Joe II (a Project Apollo test vehicle, used to test the Apollo Command Module's Launch Escape System), the gigantic Saturn V, and a low power version of the Nike Smoke sounding rocket (there has been a Pro Series II mid power version for some time). Soon, a Nike Apache kit will be released.

Also recently added to the Estes catalog is the Estes Shuttle, which, while not actually a scale model, is at least somewhat inspired by the Space Shuttle.

Most of the rockets are more challenging to build than your basic Skill Level 1 "three-fins-and-a-nose-cone" sport model rocket, and they have some nice detail. They're also on the larger end of the spectrum of low power rockets, and, when well built, look nice on the shelf.

Fans of Chris Michielssen's Model Rocket Building blog will remember his detailed build series of the Mercury Redstone. It's a good reference for some of the trickier aspects of the build (the capsule and escape tower in particular).

I love that there's a Facebook page just for this rocket. It's pretty new (looks like it was begun on June 28), and could use some more pictures. If you have some, you should add them.

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