Children's Ambitions Meet Parents' Dreams; Model Rocket Contest Links Physics, Possibilities

As boys, they wanted to be Neil Armstrong. As adults, they still do.

On Sunday, many dads, with sons in tow, came to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for an amateur model rocket contest. It was a way of sharing with a younger generation the wonder they felt when Apollo 11 rocketed to the moon 30 years ago this week.

"This makes me feel like a kid again," said Phil Joyce, 43, of Arlington, who brought his 7-year-old son, Christopher, to the event attended mostly by boy rocketeers and their fathers. "Brings it all back," he said.

The moon lore, though, got a tepid…