Let's Blast Off: Week 2 (July 6-10) Sixty-five years ago, on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel into space and orbit our planet. We will launch our imaginations this week, as campers design and create their own rockets. Using simple materials like balloons and Alka Seltzer tablets, we’ll propel our kid-made creations into the air. Campers will combine the sodium bicarbonate and water needed to make carbon dioxide and the kind of fizz that pops. Our CFG version of aerospace engineering will prove one important theory: that rocket science is fun.