(rocket whooshing) - I can't quite describe the feeling.

It's a rush, that is a really great feeling.

- Yes.

- That was amazing.

- It's arrived.

- That was so crazy, it was coming like right there.

- [Narrator] There's a spot in the Oregon desert where if you show up on the right weekend, you'll find a bunch of people with their eyes on the sky.

- Three, two, one.

(rocket whooshing) (people shouting) - It's the juxtaposition of like the mountains and the lava fields, and I like the desert environment.

- I would call it dry, dusty.

It's pretty.

- [Narrator] For the Leibowitz family, what started as a backyard hobby has turned into a full blown passion for rocketry.

- Easy to remember.

- [Margalit] So, I would've been about 11 when I started.

It seemed fun when he did it, playing with like fire and explosives and power tools.

- [Michael] You got me into it.

- [Margalit] What?

- Playing the blame game.

(Michael chuckling) - [Margalit] I like hanging out with him and building rockets in the garage.

(bright music) - She's my sanding buddy.

- We do a lot of sanding.

(both laughing) (bright music continues) - All right, we're gonna fly some rockets here.

Margalit Leibowitz flying the Chocket.

We're going in five, four, three, two, one.

(rocket whooshing) - Shoot, honey.

- That happened last time.

- [Narrator] Launching is only half the adventure, now comes the recovery mission, tracking down the rocket in a vast sea of sagebrush.

- [Michael] Hey, take a picture.

- Margalit is a developing rocketeer, but what's been really fun about seeing her development is seeing her sense of humor.

Her rockets are hilarious.

(laughs) - [Margalit] I can count, okay.

I built it mostly with my dad, that's who I do most of my rockets with.

I built Chester of the Chocket out of Cheeto cans.

We have fiberglassed the inside.

We've got the parachute and the blanket protects it from the motor, so that doesn't like burn or melt the parachute.

Naming a rocket, a lot of it is what will make people laugh.

Like, with mine, it's like, oh, it's the Procket, Pringles rocket, and just combine the two and Chester the Chocket.

- Oh, it's Orphan Destroyer.

- This is Tempest Fugit, which is Latin for time flies.

- Annabel Kane.

- Ah.

(bright music continues) - This rocket is Don't Bring Me Down, I name all my rockets after songs.

- This is Colibri the Hummingbird 'cause with any hope, it zooms off into the distance.

- [Michael] Yet Another Subliminal Thought.

- This is a big deal with his rocket at this point, last time he tried to fly it, they had rejected it both for structural concerns and for the weather conditions.

- [Michael] It's okay.

- Does it work?

- Perfect.

Just wanna make sure my igniter doesn't like slip out.

- Heavy.

- It is.

- This is going to be a heads up flight, so everybody please come out from under your tent, put eyes on this rocket.

Rocket's name, Yet Another Subliminal Thought.

Okay, Michael, we are going in five, four, three, two, one, launch.

- Oh no.

- Come on, come on, come on.

(rocket whooshing) - Whoa!

- Oh my God.

- [Michael] I feel like, for my rockets, I have just like overwhelming nerves when it goes up.

- It's way up there.

- There it is.

- 16,000.

- We can still see it.

- [Oz] We got 16,000 feet, still going.

- Oh my God.

- [Oz] I saw some tracking smoke, 20K.

- [Michael] You know I like that we're trying to do something, we're trying to accomplish something.

I like that there's a technical challenge and seeing how different people have solved similar problems and the creativity of all the different people.

- What did you fly it on last time?

Do you remember?

- E247C, yeah.

- E24?

- E24, yeah.

- Okay.

- [Michael] And we bring a whole crew, right?

- [Margalit] Yeah.

- [Michael] It's not just our family, but, you know, several families together, rocketing.

- [Richard] This hobby has a lot of great tie-ins for kids who wanna go into aerospace.

I wish we had had something like this when I was a kid.

Of course, I'm having my second childhood now, so, hey, you know, better late than never, - [Narrator] Forget those little rockets that you played with as a kid, these rockets can tower up to 12 feet tall and weigh up to a hundred pounds, and they can fly up to 40,000 feet high.

- [Richard] My success rate is only about 50%, but that's par for the course.

- [Oz] Two, one.

(rocket whooshing) - To 11,755 feet.

- [Oz] Just going far enough south it just might lift back to the pen.

- [Richard] All I gotta do is find it.

- [Narrator] Riding high on her recent success.

Margalit prepares for her most ambitious launch yet.

- [Margalit] I'm doing a night flight tonight.

- Awesome.

- I'm supposed to tell you.

- Awesome, thank you.

- [Michael] Thank you, all right, looking forward to it.

- [Narrator] Her scratch-built rocket, aptly named Glow Stick is her bold step into night launching.

- [Margalit] So it's a fiberglass body tube and it's designed to look like a glow stick as much as it can, and on the inside, I have LED strips wrapped around an inner tube so that it can light up.

- Here we go.

- Ooh.

- [Max] It should not be stuttering.

- [Margalit] Okay, we're just gonna unplug it and plug it back in, because that solves everything, right?

- Okay, yeah, this one is misaligned.

- [Michael] Okay.

She's going.

- That's a hell of a nose cone.

(Margalit laughing) - [Michael] Oh my God.

- [Rebecca] Oh my God.

- [back in,] Oh right, nevermind.

- [Michael] Oh my God, I... - [Rebecca] Oh my God.

- [Margalit] Nevermind.

- [Rebecca] Oh, babe.

- [Margalit] It's fine.

- When we tried to slide it on the rail, the cap on the top obstructed it from going far enough down.

- So it can't go on the rail, so no night flight.

Disappointed.

- [Michael] I'm sorry, honey.

Margalit, can I give you a hug?

- [Margalit] Sure.

- [Michael] I'm sorry, honey.

- [Margalit] It's fine.

I was really disappointed, but I still wanna be the first night flight in our club.

It's something and those feelings are there, but.

(laughs) - [Michael] We will conquer the nighttime barrier.

- [Margalit] Yeah, and maybe we'll finally camp out.

- [Michael] Maybe.

I got you, fam.

- [Margalit] All righty.

- [Michael] I love her so much and I really enjoy spending time with her and I really enjoy building and flying rockets with her.

And she is a lot of fun to be around and I really value this time.

- [Margalit] (laughs) I like it too.

(Michael laughing) (rocket whooshing) (people cheering) - Whoa!

- Wow.

(people applauding) (no audio)