​There’s Only One Reason to Launch a Porta-Potty Rocket

A screaming toilet comes across the sky.

The Michiana Rocketry Club took the notion of portable toilets to an entirely new level last week by launching sending one 1,126 feet into the air, 2,000 feet from the launch site, on the thrust of seven motors.

The club launches in a cornfield outside of Three Oaks, Michigan, near the Indiana border, and is a local chapter of the Tripoli Rocketry Association, an amateur-friendly high powered rocket non-profit.

I emailed Larry Kingman who worked on the "Thrusting the Throne" project to ask, you know, why they did this.

Naturally, he replied, "to prove it can be done."

MRC's next launch, this time of more conventional high-powered rocket designs, is tentatively set for December 20. But given that it's a region that lives under the specter of lake effect snow—in addition to the threat of falling toilets—any would-be witness in the area would be well-served by checking MRC's Facebook page before the launch.

Lest you think that announcing "heads up over there" as the porta-potty began to curve earthward was the only precaution taken, Kingman assured me that "the Michiana Rocketry club has all of the legal stuff handled so that we can fly in that field monthly during the winter."

"Those things include an FAA Waiver (to 12,000'), launch and safety equipment, and insurance," he said.

Kingman described the appeal of the rocket club, whose membership counts "teachers, machinists, millwrights, operating engineers, engineers, electricians, sales reps, health care, business owners" among its ranks.

"I believe that the motivation and draw is unique for each individual," Kingman said. "For me it's a combination of being able to do something that I have wanted to since I was a young child, and the real sciences and challenges that go along with the high power rockets."

And, in at least one case, toilets.

"I also enjoy the challenges of designing, building, and flying odd shaped rockets. I enjoy that as much as building a more traditional design," Kingman said. "As a matter of fact, it IS rocket science!"

It wasn't plumbing, anyway.