This is a great rocket and always a crowd favorite, especially with kids. That said, it's not the easiest to get consistent performance out of unless you follow a couple of simple steps. The parachute should be folded into a tight ball and packed inside the folded bladed of the nose cone, then the blades need to be inserted into the body tube, taking care to slide the flat side of the blade past the shock cord mount. (This will prevent the edge of the blade from catching on the edge of the paper mount.) A possible solution to this would be to replace the Estes shock cord mount with a length of Kevlar. Despite the dumb name, my Cosmic Cobra is the veteran of many flights, and occasionally recovers with the nose cone pointing up, a cool quirk that the kids love.

This is a great rocket and always a crowd favorite, especially with kids. That said, it's not the easiest to get consistent performance out of unless you follow a couple of simple steps. The parachute should be folded into a tight ball and packed inside the folded bladed of the nose cone, then the blades need to be inserted into the body tube, taking care to slide the flat side of the blade past the shock cord mount. (This will prevent the edge of the blade from catching on the edge of the paper mount.) A possible solution to this would be to replace the Estes shock cord mount with a length of Kevlar. Despite the dumb name, my Cosmic Cobra is the veteran of many flights, and occasionally recovers with the nose cone pointing up, a cool quirk that the kids love.

This is a fun rocket. You will only get a few launches with the elastics that are provided in the kit. Also, you have to be mindful packing the recovering wading and parachute if you want a successful launch.