Like the free-flying Apollo-LES, the Little Joe II rocket tested the Apollo launch abort rocket used in the event of a catastrophe just before and during launch (the Little Joe I did the same thing for Mercury). The Little Joe II's main purpose was to simulate a full-scale Saturn launch, at which point the LES could fly the Apollo spacecraft away from the flying Little Joe II booster.

When I ordered the parts for my enormous Lone Star, funded by my out-of-state benefactors known as the Triumvirite, I also purchased a few extra parts that I was unsure I would ever need. One of these was a BT-70 body tube, which isn't readily available in any retail spots, like my local hobby shop. Conveniently, I discovered, this tube was the perfect size for a 1/70 (although 1/72 is close enough) Little Joe II rocket. I've long thought the Little Joe II was a cool design. I had just flown the WAEC 1/30 Apollo-LES, and a Little Joe II could be a "companion project." I had also seen one of the two surviving Little Joe IIs, in the New Mexico Museum of Space History, in Alomogordo (just north of White Sands Missile Range). And plus, 1/72 is my favorite scale. I have built well over ten models in that scale (including three dioramas). This would be my first flying model in 1/72 scale.

I began construction of the Little Joe II soon after school got out. I based it off of the old Estes plans for the same subject. As such, this could be considered as a "clone." However, it can't be considered as a strict clone, since it is also a scale model, and I based much of it off of external sources.

Building the booster was not very hard. I merely had to be creative in a few places. For the corrugations on the skin, I scored pieces of cardstock by hand, and then carefully glued them onto the body. The complex shape of the fins was simply built-up balsa, covered with paper (as in the kit). I later added several details made from balsa and cardstock.

The spacecraft itself would be a little harder. In the original kit, the modeler was expected to tediously built, piece by piece, the byzantine tower structure. I tried that a few times, but it simply did not look correct.

By now, it was fall of 2002. At long last, I discovered (during C++ class, no less), that Apogee Components, a rocketry company based here in Colorado, had released plain 1/70 scale injection-molded Apollo-LES kits, such as were in use in its enormous Saturn models. Although it was rather expensive ($16), I bought it anyway, on the pretense that it would save me great amounts of time and trouble.

That it did. I built the whole thing in an evening. It looked excellent. It was perfectly scaled, and very well molded. Now, I could move onto finishing. I worked on this after I returned from my trip to Rome (over Christmas of 2002). I began to get very obsessive about it, making sure that my hands were perfectly clean as I painted it, and that there was absoloutely no dust on the model.

I still have not fully finished it. So minor detailing remains to be done. However, it gains mention here because I have flown it. My oringinal date planned was February 23, 2003. This would be something of a memorial for the loss of the Columbia. However, my plans were scrubbed when it started snowing, and didn't stop until a few days later.

I rescheduled the launch date to March 2, 2003 (the 70th anniversary of the release of King Kong, one of the greatest motion pictures ever). This was a perfect day: bright, sunny, warm (relatively), wispy clouds, blue sky...

The first, and to date only flight, went off without a hitch. It was the fourth of six flights that day. It rocketed to appreciable altitude on a B6-4 engine, then came down under its plastic parachute. I ran over to the spot where it was going to land...and I caught it! Little Joe II remained totally unharmed from its flight, and it is ready to fly again.

image: A full view of the rocket.
image: Looking down on the rocket.
image: Detail of the LES tower.
image: Detail of the spacecraft.
image: Detail of the fins.