National Association of Rocketry

Electronic Rocketeer

June 2023 | Volume 167

Message from the

NAR President

Fellow NAR Member,

I hope your Memorial Weekend was relaxing and, like me you spent some of that time at a rocket launch. I was at the National Sport Launch held near Alamosa Colorado at an excellent launch site. The event was sponsored by the San Luis Valley Rocketeers and hosted by Event Director, Matt Abbey. Matt was an excellent host, the range was awesomely huge, and the accommodations great. Thanks to all who volunteered to make this event successful and thanks to all who attended to fly. I am looking forward to next year!

Safety Minute:

I would like to bring up a safety issue that occurred over the weekend. This is intended to be a reminder to all about the importance of ensuring that onboard or component electronic systems should be operated and secured in a safe manner, on and off the flying field.

National Events

WSMC-2023—

The World Spacemodeling Championships are being held in Austin, Texas. This is the first time the WSMC has been hosted in the United States in over 30 years. If you are interested in being a volunteer for this historic event, visit their website and click on the Personnel tab.

Safety—

Recovery Hardware

High power rockets experience high shock loads during recovery deployments. Many rocketeers now utilize nylon or Kevlar webbing to provide adequate shock cord strength during the deployments. A commonly observed weakness during safety inspections at the Student Launch Initiative and the Spaceport America Cup is the adequacy of the hardware used to connect the shock cord to the rocket.

American Rocketry Challenge 2023 Finishes &

2024 Begins

The NAR-Aerospace Industries Association co-sponsored American Rocketry Challenge wrapped up its 2023 program with the National Finals at Great Meadow in The Plains, VA on May 20 and a national champion was crowned. Out of the 798 teams of 6 - 12 graders from 45 states that entered the ARC 2023 program, the 450 who completed

Did you miss virtual NARCON and are looking for the vNARCON-2023 presentations?

Don't worry, all presentations were recorded and are now available in the members only forum. Just go to the general rocketry community and look in the library. There are 30+ vNARCON presentations available.

Members-Only Forum (Log In)

Section News

Active NAR Sections: 236

(-5 since last month)

New Sections –The NAR would like to welcome the American Rocketry Challenge CT Group (ARC-CT) #946 out of Tolland, CT, the Civil Air Patrol Roswell Composite Squadron NM-082 (NM-082) #947 out of Roswell, NM, and the Army Rocketry and Engineering Sciences Team (ARES) #948 out of Peekskill, NY. For more about these Sections or to find the closest one to you, visit the NAR Section Map Locator page.

NAR News

Town Hall Meeting

8:00 p.m. Eastern

Aug 9, 2023

Due to the compressed nature of NARAM and the desire to reach the maximum number of NAR members, the board made the decision to hold the Town Hall/Annual Meeting via Zoom. The Town Hall/Annual Meeting is not part of NARAM and is not being held in person. You will be able to vote at NARAM. The results of the in-person, mail-in, and online voting will be announced during the Town Hall/Annual Meeting.

To register, click here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

2023 National Events

National Sport Launch—West

Alamosa, CO

May 27-29, 2023

Spacemodeling Championships

Austin, TX

July 1-8, 2023

NARAM

Lordsburg, NM

July 29-Aug. 1, 2023

National Sport Launch—East

Pence, IN

Nov. 10-12, 2023

NAR Membership

9,470

Junior: 641

Leader: 1,625

Senior: 7,070

Life: 134

High Power Certified

Jr. Level 1: 133

Level 1: 2,059

Level 2: 1,645

Level 3: 679

NAR Membership Cards

When you join or renew in the NAR, or earn a new high power certification level, the process for getting a new membership card to you typically takes about 4-5 weeks. The card changes are sent weekly to a fulfillment company that prints and mails them in batches. If you need proof of membership or certification level before the card arrives, go to:

HPR Cert. Verification or NAR Number