The first controller that I purchased with a rocket kit would not work. However, after reaching out to Estes' customer service, a replacement was sent, and it worked without incident. Hopeful to continue the rocket building and launching with my sons.

You just have to hold the key kind of hard and they fly off! Very fun

I had to fabricate my own launch controller after the one that came with this purchase did not work. My grandchildren were very disappointed at first, but cheered up when I made my own controller using 4 AA batteries taped together in series.