RANGEVILLE Space Pilots' Club held its quarterly launch on Saturday by sending dozens of model rockets high into the stratosphere.

Veteran launcher David Groves got his first taste for space travel when he was in primary school.

Since then his cache of sky-borne missiles has grown in fire power, though his latest launch was nothing to boast about.

“I started when I was in Grade 3 or something and I've been tinkering ever since,” he said.

“Some of the really big rockets we play with reach 4200kmh and fly 8km into the sky.”

On Saturday Mr Groves was content to let loose a modest 700kmh rocket, but something went awry.

Rather than climbing to its expected zenith, Mr Grove's rocket cartwheeled, spluttered and bounced off the ground, culminating in a sickly cough of smoke in the grass.

“Sometimes that just happens,” he laughed.

The Rangeville Community Church Space Pilots' Club has been operating in Toowoomba since 1965.

Launch co-ordinator Barry Whisson said it was about “giving kids a way to study science in a Christian atmosphere”.

“This is our 176th launch — we try to have four every year,” he said.

“It teaches the kids basic maths and trigonometry, but it's also about giving them good male role models.”