Orlando Science Center is aiming upward for a new goal: setting a Guinness World Record.

On Nov. 16, the Loch Haven Park museum will attempt to host the most number of people simultaneously launching a paper rocket. It needs at least 250 participants to set the mark.

The attempt, held in the Dr. Phillips CineDome, ties in with the science center’s Sci-Fi Weekend and its current exhibit named “The Science of Guinness World Records.” The latter’s displays delve into the powers behind endurance and physical competitions, showcasing activities such as cup-stacking, memory puzzles and an enormous Pac-Man videogame.

“We love the exhibit, and so it just seemed like a great opportunity to try to set one of those [records],” says JoAnn Newman, president and CEO of the science center.

“I think it’s just cool to be a part of something like this, and I think our guests will really enjoy that, too,” she says.

Science center leaders met with Guinness to determine the world-record criteria and which attempt to make. They landed on the paper-rocket category.

“We wanted to make sure it had a STEM focus with it,” said Brandan Lanman, vice president of visitor experience. Paper rockets are “a great entry-level activity for starting to learn a little bit about how rocketry works.”

The paper vessels will be propelled by the power of a puff of breath, a system not unlike blowing a straw wrapper off in a restaurant.

Guinness is specific and diligent with its instructions. In a span of 15 seconds, more than 250 rockets must be launched at a horizontal or upward angle. (“It can’t just fall off the straw,” Lanman says.)

Should fewer than 250 make it skyward, up to three attempts can be made. Guinness will have an adjudicator plus 8 to 10 stewards on hand to count accurate launches. The attempts will be recorded from multiple angles.

“The video recording will be reviewed to make sure that everything was as the eyeball sees it at the time,” Newman says.

In the lead-up to the Nov. 16 attempt, science center staff members and volunteers are hand-making the yellow rockets and attaching them to the ends of straws. They plan to put together about 1,000 of the fliers, covering the possibility of three tries.

“It’s such a cross-generational idea to set a world record, little kids all the way up to their grandparents and others, like, ‘Oh, yeah, I remember Evel Knievel’ and ‘I remember when this YouTuber did something,’” Lanman says. “Everybody’s kind of got their own story.”

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If you go

Both science center members and the general public visiting the museum on launch day may participate in the world-record attempt. The paper-rocket activity is included with regular admission.

Record seekers must be at least 8 years old and must arrive at Orlando Science Center by 10 a.m. to secure a reservation. It’s first-come, first-serve, and there is a limit of 300 people in the CineDome. Participants will check in at the theater at 12:30 p.m., and the record attempt will be at 1 p.m.

For more information, go to OSC.org.