The last few months have been intense for the CSU Long Beach Experimental Sounding Rocket team.

They completed the rocket for the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition that was held at SpaceportAMerica in New Mexico the end of June.

There were more than 90 teams from all over the world.

Charley’s ashes rode in four of the rockets.

The ESRA team surprised me by naming their rocket “Hoult On Tight.”

So I surprised them with a poem that I read before the launch.

They made it to 8,000 feet…enough to deploy the drogue parachute and disperse his ashes, but not to win an award.

I am very proud of the students for all their efforts.

After Charley passed away in November, they completed the rocket with very little faculty supervision….they really did an excellent job.

My poem:

When Charley was a little boy he had some favorite toys

Anything that he could fly brought him lots of joy

The rocket shot with rubber bands that he launched from his hand

Had only one problem, he didn’t know where it would land

One hit his sister’s doll house and tossed dolls everywhere

And when he shot one off at school, it landed in the teacher’s hair…!

He kept learning through the years and soaked up lots of knowledge

Which, after he retired, he shared with kids in college

Indeed, his team from Long Beach State has really got it right.

Their rocket which carried his ashes, they named Hoult On Tight

The CSULB rocket made it to 8,000 feet. Charley’s ashes were dispersed when the drogue parachute opened.

Some of his askes rode on a Brazilian rocket, which also made it to 8,000 feet, an Egyptian rocket tha5t exploded on the launch pad and an experimental rocket that Oregon State University was trying to get to 100,000 feet, but it exploded at 30,000 feet. The OSU project director found a portion of the rice paper his ashes were in. The consensus is that he is now permanently a part of the Spaceport America rocket launch site base camp!

Dr. Hoult may be contacted at Houltight@aol.com