October Sky
Chapter 9: Jake Mosby
In this chapter the boys meet a new boy that will have a huge impact on them as the procede in their rocket building. Jake Mosby, an assistant engineer, is the son of a wealthy man that owns an ample amount of the company that owns the mine. The boys finish the construction of the cape and send out news about their next rocket launches. Jake, along with a few others including a newspaper reporter, attend the next rocket launching. Afterwards, Jake gives the boys a telescope that allows them to see Jupiter and the stars, he also gives them a book on trigonometry so they can determine the height the rockets are reaching.
Chapter 12: The Machinists
After apologizing to his mother, Sonny decides to endure his father's advice and ask Ike Bykovski about Wernher von Braun. It then begins a simple but crucial discussion about the likelihood of change, forgiveness, and even the chance that Sonny's father might just be jealous of Wernher von Braun. Sonny then returns to his rocket building while also recieving hellp from the machinists by exchanging favors for work. Although Homer refuses to confess that he is aiding his son, he is mainly responsible for the help. The rokcets continue to progress and are reaching as high as 3,000ft on one trip. Concerns about the rocket candy begin to rise when it reached its limits. Putting that aside, Sonny begins to believe that by the way of hard work he will be able to accomplish anything.
Chapter 11: Rocket Candy
The dispute between mother and father over Sonny, even though it is the first time Homer seems to care about the dispute. The boys start off making their new rocket candy fuel by combining sugar and saltpeter with his mother, they are then able to design rockets thats main disadvantage is the oxidation of the metal. In the meantime, Homer insists on Sonny coming to the mine with him. Homer sees the opportunity for Sonny to become a mine engineer, taking in to consideration of Sonny wanting to be an engineer. Elsie soon discovers Homer took Sonny down into the mine and demands him that he will never work in the mine. Elsie is convinced that the mine has killed her husband, believing the black spot on his lung came from being in the mine adn she will not allow it to kill her son.
Chapter 10: Miss Riley
When the Rocket Boys return to school after being in the paper they noticed that they are treated a little bit differently. Football players are no longer the heros of the school, while they are not quiet yet heros they are still better off. Sputnik changed the school curriculum to hours of homework each night. Sonny is trying to learn calculus along with any other math he can learn to make his rocket launches better. Sonny's chemistry teacher, Miss Riley, shows the boys a chemical reaction that they suspect could be good rocket fuel. She allows them to use it, but they soon find an alternative that could possibly have the potential to be better than black powder.
