Homemade skateboard rocket explodes, kills student

(AP) — Investigators on Tuesday were trying to figure out what caused a homemade rocket attached to a skateboard to explode, killing a Southern California high school student and injuring his friend.

The teens were experimenting with a skateboard attached to a homemade rocket as an engine, authorities said.

Moon was a varsity tennis player at the school, an honors student and had been accepted to both the University of California, Berkeley and Brown University, friends said.

William Kim, 18, of Irvine, met him last summer at Boys State in Sacramento, a weeklong camp where one standout student from each California high school gathers to set up a mock government.

The experiment at the elementary campus wasn't sanctioned by any school, and the victims likely were using the courtyard because it's an open space, Kuredjian said.