Sunday, March 12, 2017

"ASTRON" - What Happened?

I purposely cut off the ASTRON name from the Skydart decal to match the original kit.
Here's a recent comment from the Skydart build decal post:

"What??!! Leave off 'Astron'??? NOOOOOO!!
Blasphemy! Blasphemy! Blasphemy!!"

I had thought the Skydart made it's first appearance in 1973. In the '73 catalog , the word Astron was not part of the catalog description.
I was wrong, the Skydart was actually introduced in 1972. In that catalog it was called the "Astron Skydart". In '72, most all the sport models (up to the K-57 Skydart) had the Astron name.
In the '73 catalog the "Astron" name starts to disappear. Only the Big Bertha, Shrike, Trident and Apogee II kept Astron in their descriptions.

I always wondered why Estes used the word "ASTRON" as part of the kit name.
From a great Estes article in Sport Rocketry issue from May/June 2007: CLICK HERE


VERN: "I am frequently asked where the term "Astron" came from. I remember we decided to use it while still in Denver. My recollection has always been that the word meant "over and above" and that I had found it in a dictionary or other printed reference. Today, when I look for such a reference it cannot be found. Perhaps I coined the word with the intent of it having such a meaning. Today, when I Google for the word "Astron," I find a lot of businesses and organizations using it in their names. Perhaps, some of these entities are ones that were founded by some of our early model rocketeers."
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6 comments:

  1. The Rocket N00bMarch 12, 2017 at 5:05 PM

    Interesting. I wondered if it had been applied to a line of kits which all had something in common. Maybe the same designer, or something. I figured it must have some meaning, to apply to some Estes rockets and not others.

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    Replies
    1. Chris MichielssenMarch 14, 2017 at 10:48 AM

      Hi Daniel,
      The designs of the 1960s were designed by a team of four or five people at Estes - http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts/ClassicKits.asp
      You'll see the Astron name associated with all sport models of that time but not attached to any scale kits.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousMarch 12, 2017 at 11:14 PM

    You could make your own decal copy of the retro typeface for the Astron, that might look better than the supplied currrent version in all caps.

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    Replies
    1. Chris MichielssenMarch 14, 2017 at 10:44 AM

      Hi Glen,
      I probably could have done that - but that old "Astron" logo could look dated on the modern design of the Skydart. I would put the Astron logo on sport models of the 1960s era.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMarch 13, 2017 at 12:01 AM

    Thanks for the addition here, Chris!

    Reason why the 'Astron' term is so important to me.....(history mode on)

    Back in spring '77, when I was 8.5yrs old, I had most of the old Astron named rockets. And, I loved that so much, that I was even calling my initial scratch builts then by the same.

    So, I'm flying at the school club, with just about everyone else there WAY older than myself...and I made it a point to indicate the names of my stuff as: Astron Alpha, Astron SkyDart, Astron Orbital Transport, and Astron Avenger.

    After about the sixth time, one of the high schoolers there, notoriously a bully type, then smarmly says, "So, you're supposed to be AstronMike?"

    That got laughter, some of it not so funny, but that term stuck, and I still see myself as "that".

    So, now you know some of the backstory of AstronMike!

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