This is fairly simple and doesn’t require glueing, although some precision cutting: A paper rocket made of interlocking parts:

It’s not the most stable toy, and in fact is more something to look at than to play with. However, I like the kind of minimalistic charm of it. Here is how to assemble it:
First, you have to print both sides onto carboard, i.e. you print the front first, then turn the page and insert it into the printer again and print the back. This will not be 100% aligned (the quality of the alignment depends on the paper feed mechanism of your printer). The template accounts for that by adding some bleed to the shapes. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to try to align the paper as accurately as possible. After printing and cutting, you should have five shapes:

Interlock the two rocket shaped parts like so:

That was the easy part. Now use the three disks to stabilize everything. This is an “automatically” interlocking system. The biggest disk goes into the middle, the second biggest to the bottom and the smallest to the apex of the rocket. Interlocking the disks is a bit tricky and requires some bending of the material. You will have to carefully bend the cardboard back once everything is in place. Start with the middle incision and slide it into the bottom-most incision in the rocket:

Make sure that the disk is parallel to the rocket shape, not angled, i.e. at this stage it needs to be vertically aligned, not horizontally:

Once it is in place, you have to carefully bend it upwards  on one side and downwards on the other, until the incisions on the disk and the opposing rocket part interlock:

Now carefully bend the disk into it’s original, flat shape, and you are all set:

Do it for the other two disks as well, and voila: Your own personal paper rocket, ready to take to the stars:

Here is the template in PDF format:

• Front page
• Back page

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