Straw Rockets
Celebrate Yuri’s Night by designing and launching your own straw rocket!
Collect
• Letter-size paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Scotch tape
• Drinking straw
Create the rocket body
1. Fold the paper crosswise or hamburger style. Cut along the crease with scissors to make two smaller
pieces of paper.
2. Fold one of these pieces in half again, lengthwise or hotdog style, and cut along the crease.
3. Tightly wrap one of these pieces lengthwise around the pencil and tape it so that it forms a tube shape.
4. Twist, bend, or fold one end of the tube to form the rocket’s nose and tape it into place.
5. Push the tube off the pencil.
Design the fins
6. On one of the remaining pieces of paper, design the size and shape of your rocket’s fins. Think about
what shape would help the rocket become more aerodynamic.
7. Carefully cut out the fins and attach them to the rocket body with tape.
Launch the rocket!
8. Put an unwrapped drinking straw inside the rocket and blow to launch.
9. Experiment with the angle of the straw and the shape and size of the fins to change the way your rocket flies.
How it works
When you blow through the straw, the force of your breath causes your rocket to fly through the air just like
real rockets fly through the Earth’s atmosphere. The shape of your rocket affects the amount of drag it
produces. Fins can help your rocket combat against drag and allow your rocket to fly straighter and stay in
the air longer.
Why celebrate Yuri’s Night?
Aimed to inspire the next generation of space enthusiasts, Yuri’s Night is a globally celebrated holiday
which commemorates space exploration milestones and is named for Yuri Garagin, the first human to
journey into outer space and orbit the Earth.
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