BELLEVILLE - It's easy to be skeptical of Gary Streeter's plan to put a satellite into space. After all, he has bought many of his rocket parts at Home Depot.

His engine testing ground is the weed-choked yard of a 145-year-old brick home on the edge of downtown. And mission control sits in the backyard, inside a lemon-yellow building the size of a one-car garage with windows covered by colorful curtains of rockets, stars and planets.

It's there, in his spare time, where Streeter amid piles of boxes, furniture and books tinkers with his plans to launch a satellite on the 40th anniversary next year of the first moon landing.

"A lot of people thought Columbus was nuts," said Streeter, who sees space travel and colonization as a certainty. He wants to prove that there's a place in the race for everyone, not just the big boys NASA, the military, corporations.

"It's viable and doable, and it's time to get in on the ground floor," said Streeter, 48, who has been designing and building rocket engines since the moon shots first captured his imagination as a boy growing up in South Carolina.

Crazy?

Diane Earhart doesn't think so. She owns the Belleville house. And it was Earhart (no relation to Amelia) who persuaded Streeter to pursue his dream.

The two met in 2006 at the Downtown St. Louis Airport in Cahokia, where Streeter worked as a pilot for a freight company and Earhart, 51, is an air traffic controller.

It wasn't long before Streeter, a former high school chemistry, math and physics teacher, showed Earhart, a fellow pilot and space enthusiast, plans that he had worked on for years a homemade rocket engine that he said could propel a small satellite into Earth's orbit.

For Earhart, the idea appealed to the same explorer spirit that prompted her to enter what she described as the "man's world" of air traffic control at age 25.

"What he wanted to do made sense," said Earhart, who created General Aviation Space Group with Streeter to pursue the project. "It just seemed like something that could be done."

Streeter and Earhart aren't the first civilians to reach for the stars.

The Federal Aviation Administration has licensed 180 commercial space launchings since 1989, many of them telecommunications and other satellites.

In 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately built manned spacecraft to reach space and in doing so claimed the $10 million Ansari X Prize, inspired by the $25,000 award that Charles Lindbergh won for crossing the Atlantic nonstop in 1927.

But an FAA spokesman said he knew of few ventures like the one proposed by Streeter and Earhart.

"In terms of a group putting together and launching a rocket and getting into orbit, I'd say it's pretty rare, actually," FAA spokesman Hank Price said.

Not to mention dangerous, expensive and complicated, said Hank Pernica, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. Pernica has been working for three years to design and build two small satellites.

"In a word, it's difficult," said Pernica.

The FAA is working with Streeter and Earhart's group and is waiting to receive a formal application, Price said.

"We'll look at where they're launching from, the calculations they project for trajectory and … make sure the safety of the uninvolved public is not compromised," Price said.

THREE, TWO, ONE …

The 15-pound satellite, named Astra, will be about the size of a basketball, Streeter said. It will be modestly equipped, just the necessary gear to send temperature readings and a radio signal that ham operators around the world can track.

The goal is to launch Astra into low Earth orbit, far below and out of the way of telecommunications, weather, military and other satellites. Streeter hopes it will stay in orbit for one to two years before it tumbles back into the atmosphere and disintegrates.

To do that, Streeter said, he needs engines capable of powering the satellite 200 miles into the sky.

And to do that, he needs a pretty big rocket.

On a recent sunny morning. Streeter, Earhart and her husband, Stephen King, were wearing matching white shirts bearing the Space Group logo.

In the side yard, beneath the clothesline and amid the dandelions, a small rocket engine sat bolted to a welding cart. The rocket engine is a small prototype of the one they hope to launch. The 2-foot-long test rocket, made of white plastic pipe, sat horizontal to the ground.

One end was capped, and a piece of tubing led from a brass fitting to a green oxygen bottle. Two intertwined blue wires snaked from the opposite end and connected to a switch. For fuel, Streeter used something inside the tube that he said burned well, was easy to work with and readily available paper.

The day's test called for a steady burn of 20 seconds.

Everyone donned thick ear protectors. Streeter bent down on one knee. Earhart recorded with a video camera.

Streeter flipped the switch and sent a spark along the wires.

"On the count of three, two, one …"

He slowly twisted the knob on the oxygen bottle. The oxygen hit the spark and exploded. The paper ignited. Pressure inside the plastic rocket engine soared. A hiss, then a yellow and bluish flame leapt from the back end that held the blue wires.

Streeter leaned close to the fire and studied the shape of the plume as he opened the valve even more. The flame danced and skittered a bit, then petered out. Twenty seconds hadn't passed. Streeter stood up.

"That's it. There you have it," Streeter said. "A little disappointing."

He realized he forgot to check how much oxygen had been left in the tank before he started the test.

"It's science," Earhart added with a shrug.

MUCH TO BE DONE

The final rocket will consist of three stages and stand about 60 feet tall, Streeter said.

The launch will have to take place somewhere remote but accessible enough for volunteers to reach. They're thinking about the Mojave Desert or the Louisiana coast.

There have been a few setbacks. Money is tight. Streeter said the budget to put his satellite into space is "an ever-changing thing" but quickly added, "I think we can do it for a lot less than NASA can."

When pressed, he estimated it will take about $500,000. The group has applied for nonprofit status, started to recruit volunteers and sponsors, and even held bake sales to raise money.

So far, Streeter estimates they have spent about $2,000.

Three test launchings of a single-stage rocket expected to reach 5,000 feet have been canceled. They pushed back an October date after they had trouble securing a launching site and finding the proper fuel combination.

They scrubbed a December launching, saying they needed to do more testing and safety checks. The third, earlier this month, also got pushed off because of problems with the site.

They now hope to launch the test rocket, which they have named Aurora, from somewhere around Steelville, Mo., on Oct. 4, the same date the Soviet Union in 1957 launched Sputnik and kicked off the space race. No FAA permit is required for the test flight.

Meanwhile, on the group's website, a counter clicks off the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining before the July 20, 2009, launching that Streeter and Earhart wonder might someday lead to their names being uttered in the same breath as the Wright brothers.

"If somebody says it can't be done, I'll show them where it can be done because I'm going to do it," Streeter said. "That's what adventure is all about and why we ended up going to space in the first place."