Brief:
This is a tumble recovery Micromaxx oddball rocket.

Construction:
The parts list:

• 1 laser cut basswood sheet
• 1 MMX motor tube
• 1 BT-20 body tube
• 1 BT-60 ring
• 1 balsa head cone, launch lug

The kit contains 12 steps of easy to follow instructions with clear illustrations. The instructions have a printed tube marking guide for the motor tube. I glued a 1/4" dowel to the guide, which held the tube as I marked it.

The laser cut fins are a nice feature, because I would not want to cut these arms/legs by hand. The 4 legs are glued on the motor tube as in any other rocket, then the nose cone/head is glued in.

The next step is to mark and cut slots into the BT-20 for the arms and legs. Everything worked as in the instructions, but the tube marking guide printed on the instructions was hard to use. It has 4 slots cut in the bottom for the legs and 2 in the top for the arms. The problem is the BT-20 is small and the guide has 6 cuts in it so the guide does not want to lay flat. I had to wrap it around the tube and hold it down as I marked each slot. Maybe thinner paper would make it easier, but everything worked out okay.

After marking the tube, I used a razor saw to cut the slots 2 at a time. The slots were not quite wide enough, so I used a sharp X-Acto to trim them wider. The body is then glued over the motor tube with the 4 legs inside the 4 slots. I used a toothpick to glue the legs on the inside.

The arms are made by gluing an upper arm to a lower arm. I used wax paper to lay them on as they dried. This worked well. Jim supplies a third set of arms as a spare in case they are needed, which I thought was a nice touch. The arms attach to the motor tube, BT-20, and 2 legs.

It is important at this stage to make sure the "hands" are glued to the same side of the 2 legs. This becomes the front of the Space Man.

The ring is glued on next, and it fit perfectly. The last step is to glue the launch lug inside the BT-20 along a leg.

Finishing:
I did not seal his legs and just sprayed it with 2 coats of silver spray paint. Then I let him dry for a few days and brush painted his head and hands flesh with black for hair.

Jim includes some very nice waterslide decals for his face and other details. They go on smooth and I did not use any setting sotution. I thought it was a nice touch to include a space gun decal. The last step was a brush coat of Future floor wax to seal the decals. When done he looks great.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I launched this guy on the Quest MMXII-1 (0.31 N-sec) motor that I bought from FlisKits. FlisKits recomends only this motor.

Prep is more involved than a standard size rocket. The Quest launch system uses an igniter that plugs into the launcher and the rocket then slides down the launch rod to sit on top of the igniter. This will not work with the Man of Space due to the base ring keeping the motor tube well above the igniter. FlisKits has clear instructions on how to remove the igniter from the plug housing. The igniter is then held in place with a toothpick that also acts as a spacer to hold him up high enough to attach launcher clips to the igniter. It sounds complex but is really very easy. No wadding is needed either.

Be warned, The Intergalactic Man of Space really moves! He flew straight up to about 90ft and he got there in about 1/2 a second! For such a small rocket this is very high and it is hard to keep track of him.

The featherweight recovery worked good. It was a little windy when I launched so he landed about 60ft from the pad.

Recovery:
The only problem I had was getting power to the igniter. The MMX system uses 9 volts. My 6 volt Estes controller would not put out enough power to ignite the motor. I rigged up a quick and dirty 12 volt system to launch. No damage to the little guy and I expect many more flights.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
I liked this build a lot. Everything is very high quality. The only thing that I could come up with even remotely negative would be the BT-20 marking guide, but that is really nit picking. He looks great and flies great!

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5