National Association of Rocketry

Electronic Rocketeer—What's Happening in Rocketry

Message from the NAR President

Fellow NAR Member,

The National Sport Launch – East was held on November 22-23 and hosted by NAR Section 571 – Southern Area Rocketry Association (SoAR). Jorge Blanco and the entire team of volunteers made this two-day event a fun and safe launch. Saturday was a bit breezy with the wind direction not ideal for the position of launch pads with respect to the position of vendors and the parking area. It was impressive that very few rockets landed among the vendor and parking areas because flyers were reminded at check in and the launch control officers assessed launch angles throughout the day to ensure rockets landing in safe recovery areas. This launch affirmed that paying attention to launch angles is an effective means to reduce the risk of rockets landing in unsafe areas.

Thanks to the vendors who attended the launch. Support from rocketry vendors is essential for the continued health of our hobby, so it was great to see the number of vendors at our National Sport Launches this year.

The NAR is fueled by volunteers, particularly at the local level. Local clubs rely on volunteers to run launches and club meetings. Volunteers also support our national educational and outreach programs at the local level – shout out to all who volunteer time, for example, to mentor American Rocketry Challenge teams and to witness qualifying flights. Volunteers are also important to other educational programs such as the NASA Student Launch, ARLISS, and local outreach efforts. You can do your part by volunteering for any of these local activities, for example:

• Sign up for range duty at a local launch
• Help your local club to set up and tear down the range at your local launches
• The American Rocketry Challenge needs volunteers to mentor teams
• The American Rocketry Challenge also needs volunteers to help with the finals in May 2026

There are many other local volunteer opportunities; we can all help a little to ease the burden on those who step up by volunteering for these important activities. If everyone volunteers some time, then the handful of members who show up for every launch and spend the entire launch setting up and running the range will have time to fly and also not get burned out. Afterall, we join this hobby to fly rockets and everyone who comes out to a launch should get the opportunity. We also need our younger members to volunteer to learn the skills needed to help run an organization, particularly at the local level. Please do your part to support our hobby and volunteer.

As we enter December, please consider donating to the NAR. Many will be assessing their annual giving plans, and we ask you to keep the NAR in mind for your donations. I’ve mentioned before that we are trying to build up our scholarship program to be self-funding through endowments and a donation fund that gives us an annual funding stream via our investment portfolio. You can help by donating to our educational scholarship program; big or small, all donations help us to meet this goal. If you are able, larger donations can be crafted to create a named endowment to support NAR scholarships. Consider the NAR in your estate and philanthropy planning.

I will close this month and year with wishes to all for a relaxing and rewarding holiday season. We have had a great 2025 in rocketry.

Stay safe, have fun and pay it forward.

John N. Hochheimer

NAR President

NAR 74537 L3

The NAR permits members between the ages of 14 and 17 to participate in HPR flying given that the member completes the associated training program and continues to work with a mentor/flier-of-record. This is an excellent way for junior members to build HPR experience prior to their 18 birthday. Full details of the program can be found here. 

Several items to note –

• The associated mentor must accompany the JrHPP member in all phases of a launch to include the prep area, the RSO inspection and out to the high power launch pads
• Only the associated mentor may possess, assemble or handle an HPR reload or fully assembled rocket motor, to include inserting the motor into the rocket and inserting the igniter at the launch pad. A JrHPP member may not possess, assemble or handle an HPR motor at any time
• Only motor eject/single deploy flights, to a maximum of 640 N-S (I motors) are allowed. Electronics are allowed as long as they are not used to control deployment
• JrHPP candidates and mentors should thoroughly review the JrHPP procedures at the link listed above before attempting any JrHPP activities
  

 

The NAR YouTube Channel Needs Your Rocket Video!

The National Association of Rocketry is re-fueling our official YouTube channel with a focus on the incredible work happening across our community, education, and safety. As part of this relaunch, we’re looking to feature videos created by our members!

If you have video content of your rocketry projects, build progress, launch preparations, safety and setup procedures, or flight footage from NAR launches or section events, we’d love to include it. This is a great opportunity to highlight your work, inspire new rocketeers, and help us broaden outreach to younger audiences and future NAR members.

What we’re looking for:

• Build videos (construction, electronics, painting, recovery systems, etc.)

• Launch footage from NAR sections or individual launches

• Safety demonstrations, setup walkthroughs, or tips based on the NAR Safety Code

• Team features, project highlights, educational or step-by-step content

Your contributions will help us create a more engaging, educational, and community-driven channel that represents the full spectrum of NAR activities.


Instructions on Sharing Your Video

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Were you participating in the previous version of NARTREK?

Arming and Safing Energetics—Is It Easy For Your Rocket? 

Among the more fascinating things to watch at a rocket launch are the flyers trying to arm their electronics for flight.  Flyers arming rockets are often seen probing dark holes in the rocket with screwdrivers and sticks or rubbing magnets over the outside of the rocket, sometimes while on a ladder, to find an internal switch or a magnetic pickup.  Sometimes, rather than locate a switch on a crowded circuit board they bridge a live circuit and fire their energetics.  Tools and keys required at the launch pad for arming may be forgotten.

 

A related problem is safing of the electronics, either after a scrubbed launch or during recovery.  Safing at the launch pad may be a repeat of the arming issues only conducted with live electronics in the rocket.  Safing can be difficult enough for folks familiar with the rocket; what about a rocket found off-range by strangers? 

 

Externally mounted switches or switches mounted immediately inside the airframe with their actuators externally visible offer the easiest answer to these issues.  Switches that can be actuated without tools or keys remove the problem of not having required items at the launch pad (of course, using a good checklist can help avoid this problem) and make it easier for strangers to safe the rocket.  If you are using externally mounted switches, make sure that normal handling cannot accidently actuate the switch.  For example, a raised collar around a pushbutton switch will help assure that the electronics are not armed by placing the rocket on the switch.  Rotary switches are another common solution.

 

There are several design ideas that can mitigate the hunt and peck nature of arming internal switches.  An inverted “funnel” to guide a tool towards the switch can be used.  For screw switches, a longer screw can be used to bring the screw head closer to the rocket exterior or a “collar” made from a launch lug can be adhered around the screw head to provide guidance for the screwdriver.  An easily removed and installed external hatch may be considered for improved internal access.  If using magnetic switches, mark the outside of the rocket to clearly show the location of the switch.  Practice the arming and safing procedures using the applicable checklists to make sure that the tools are available, the tools work, and switches are aligned with their external access points.  Do this with the rocket vertical and on a ladder if one is required for the actual flight. 

 

External labeling can be useful to strangers finding the rocket to warn them of energetics within the rocket.  At a minimum, provide a name and phone number so the rocket owner may be called when the rocket is found.  If using key switches, a key mounted externally on the rocket is suggested; I typically mount one externally on the aftmost motor centering ring.

 

Steve Lubliner

Supporting the American Rocketry Challenge

The 2025-2026 American Rocketry Challenge registration process closes on December 6.  As usual, we expect that the majority of teams will officially complete their registration in the last two weeks, and we will then know who all of them are and where they are from.   Returning teams with prior-year experience are probably already building their rockets and may even be flying their first flights.  A significant number of teams, however, are likely to be first-timers, or teams with limited resources that have not yet obtained all the needed parts and supplies.  The next few months are where the “magic” of the program happens, as young people from these teams learn how to design, build, fly, and use flight test data to achieve good scores.  New teams need experienced rocketry mentors, and that’s where the NAR comes in.  We have over 350 members who have volunteered to make themselves available to these teams, to show them how to build and to fly safely and once all the registrations are in we will try to connect them with teams that say that they need mentors.  However you do not have to be an “official” mentor to help a team, so if you are asked, please help.  Of course if you’d like to become an official mentor, all you have to do is go to this page on the NAR website and sign up. 

 

Beyond mentoring, the most important thing that everyone in the NAR can do to help ARC teams is to welcome them to your section’s launches, and let them use your launch equipment and flying site under your safety supervision.  If they look like they need help figuring out how to prep and fly for the first time, be helpful and show them – patiently and with a welcoming approach.  These young people are the future of the US aerospace industry, and of our NAR.  We want them to fly with us, and we need them to see us as helpful and supportive so they will come back – again and again.   

Membership 8,764
Family: 554

Junior: 442
Life: 142
Young Adult: 2,656
Senior: 4,323
Senior Plus: 600
Teacher + Students: 47

HPR Certified
Jr Level 1: 176

Level 1: 2,124

Level 2: 1,621
Level 3: 668

Section News

Contest Rocketry News

NARAM 67 Update

CD: Matt Steele

Date: Sunday June 28 to Thursday July 2

Location: IAC Muncie, Indiana

Events: 2025-26 NRC events and…

  Concept Sport Scale

  Scale (Please note that the Scale Altitude event has been removed)

2025-26 NRC Events

For the 2025-26 Contest year, the following NRC events have been chosen...

1/2 A PD FAI

1/2 A SD FAI

1/2 A HD FAI

A RG FAI

C Egg Loft Altitude

A Altitude

This slate of events was chosen to support the increased participation of FAI contestants, especially juniors, in NRC and NARAM. These events were also chosen to integrate NRC championship with US Team selection which will be held during NARAM 67.

Mentoring and Outreach

In conjunction with the increased selection of FAI events for NRC and NARAM, the contest board is actively trying to recruit, provide resources to and help train contestants to build and fly FAI and NRC models. I am putting together a mentoring list so that anyone who needs some competition help can get in contact with someone who is willing to help.  Please add your name and contact info to the following spreadsheet if you would like to be contacted by those in need of competition help. If you would like to get help with competition, then send me an email and I will see what we can do to help.

NAR Competition Mentor List

Competition Zoom Meeting

I will be hosting a monthly zoom for members who would like to talk about competition. This is an open meeting for any NAR member who wants to see what is going on in competition.The next meeting will be held on Saturday December 13th at 9pm (ET). If there is a topic you would like to include, please send me an email. Join in and meet with competitors from across the country.

Please register for the meeting using the following link.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsceGgqT4rG90eSqEj2Za0TAcGNxykF9Ug