The Astrocam is a model rocket

Model rocket

A model rocket is a small rocket that is commonly advertised as being able to be launched by anybody, to, in general, low altitudes and recovered by a variety of means....

 with a built-in camera for taking aerial photograph

Photograph

A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

s.

The Astrocam comes from the American manufacturer Estes

Estes Industries

Estes Industries is a company based in Penrose, Colorado, USA that designs and builds model rocket and model aircraft engines and kits. They were the best known model rocket company during the "golden age of rocketry" in the 1970s and early 1980s, competing primarily with Centuri Engineering and a...

 and it can be flown by B6-4-and C6-7-propellants. The Astrocam was available as kit or as ready-to-fly model. The camera used 110 film

110 film

110 is a cartridge-based film format used in still photography. It was introduced by Kodak in 1972. 110 is a miniaturised version of Kodak's earlier 126 film format. Each frame is , with one registration hole....

 and was mounted in the nose cone of the rocket with the aperture perpendicular to the main axis of the rocket. A mirror held in a hood was used like a periscope

Periscope

A periscope is an instrument for observation from a concealed position. In its simplest form it consists of a tube with mirrors at each end set parallel to each other at a 45-degree angle....

 to enable the camera to look rearward. The camera needs to be manually advanced and "cocked" by pulling a string attached to spring-loaded shutter taut. When the nose cone

Nose cone

The term nose cone is used to refer to the forwardmost section of a rocket, guided missile or aircraft. The cone is shaped to offer minimum aerodynamic resistance...

 is placed on the rocket body, the string is placed between the nose cone and the body so that when the ejection charge of the engine expels the nose cone, the string is released causing one frame of film to be exposed. Since the rocket is not steerable, the photographer can not determine what the camera will photograph.

A version of the Astrocam called the Astrocam 110 is also available, and the Estes Snapshot is very similar as well. http://www.estesrockets.com/products.php?number=1327 A modern version of the Astrocam is the Oracle

Oracle (rocket)

Oracle is the name of a model rocket with built-in digital camera, manufactured by Estes Industries, for aerial photography. In contrast to the camera rocket Astrocam, the Oracle allows the making of a complete film of a rocket flight...

, which shoots video. A newer video version, called the Astrovision, is also available.