Electronic Rocketeer—What's Happening in Rocketry

Message from the NAR President

Fellow NAR Member,

I hope that all our members are enjoying the increased activities of another flying season. Please remember to thoroughly check each of your rockets from last year to ensure that all the components are in operating order and safe to fly. Also, don’t forget to set launch angles such that all flights will be away from flight lines and parked vehicles. Rockets should not be recovering over people and vehicles!

Our membership numbers are climbing again, and we are above 9,000 active members. We grew by almost 250 members in April! Thanks to all who are recruiting new members. Additionally, NAR staff initiated a campaign to reach out to past members, which seems to be paying off. We have had numerous past members rejoin recently because of this marketing effort.

The increase in members is also helping our bottom line in terms of cash flow. Compared to a year ago, the NAR financials are in much better shape. Our recent efforts to reduce costs and the extra income from increased memberships is giving us a stronger cash reserve, which is important this time of year. The NAR Board of Trustees will continue to look for ways to manage the association funds efficiently and to the benefit of the association.

I attended the 2026 NASA Student Launch in Huntsville. Our team led safety checks on 30 rockets and range operations for the flights. John Lyngdal managed the NAR team of volunteers for a successful weekend that included several scheduling challenges due to weather. Thanks to John and the volunteers for another great turnout.

Let’s be safe and remember to observe all safety precautions as flying activities increase over spring and summer.

 

John N. Hochheimer
NAR President
NAR 74537 L3

 

For over three decades, NYPOWER has been the Premier Northeast Rocket Launch at the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo NY.  It is hosted in May on the three-day Memorial Day weekend.  During that time MARS (Monroe Astronautical Rocket Society – NAR Section 136) has host the National Sport Launch three times. We are pleased to welcome the NAR back for another amazing weekend of launches on the Legendary Geneseo Field.

Geneseo NY — 8,000′ AGL Waiver
May 23 – 25, 2026 (Saturday – Monday)

The field is a WWII era grass airfield which is now home to the National Warplane Museum. You have a 1 mile x 1 mile mowed grass recovery area and if you exceed that the staff at NSL will do its best to help you recover your rocket.

NSL-East 2026 is operated under NAR rules. Tripoli (TRA) high-power certifications will be honored, but Tripoli members must fly under NAR rules (i.e. no research motors). Please contact your certifying organization with any insurance questions.

Saturday – Registration opens 9a, Launch Range operates 10a to 5p; Night Launch starts at 8:30p
Sunday – Launch Range operates from 9a to 5p
Monday – Launch Range operates 9a to 3p

Saturday Potluck Dinner: Bring your favorite dish to share with friends and fellow rocketeers in our community potluck (before the Night Launch)

Night Launch: Don’t miss our thrilling night launch on Saturday at 8:30p

Experience the magic as rockets light up the sky! CLASS-1 Rockets (Low-Power) ONLY!
(Weather dependent – could be moved to Sunday night)

Children under 18 fly low-power rockets for FREE.

Pre-registration ($50) continues until May 1st. On-field registration will be $75 ($25 per day). 

Visit the NSLE-2026 Website

Senior and Young Adult members who joined the NAR before July 8, 2025 (NAR number 123391 or lower) are eligible to vote in the election for the three seats that are open on the Board of Trustees. Online voting is open now and will continue through July 3. (For voting purposes, a Young Adult mem­ber is defined as one who has reached his/her 16th birthday as of August 3, 2026.)

You may vote online, or you may return the mail-in ballot in the April/May/June issue of Sport Rocketry, or in-person at NARAM. You may only vote once!

You will find candidate statements and an online ballot at:

2026 Board of Trustee Candidates and Online Voting

NAR Section News 

New Sections—The NAR would like to welcome the Thomasville Rocketry (T-ROC) Section #1019 out of Doerun, GA. For more about this Sections or to find the one closest to you, visit the NAR Club Finder page.  Want to charter a new NAR Section? Please go HERE.

Launch Sites—Is your Section looking for a launch site? The online Section Guidebook has a chapter on Launch Sites which contains a lot of useful information that may help you find and secure permission for your Sections launching activities. There are also chapters on Starting a New Section, Section Management, Publicity, & Running Launches, to name a few. All of the information in the guidebook isn’t just for Sections!  Individual NAR members may also find the information it contains useful. You can also reach out to the SAC Chairman for support.

Section Grants—Don’t forget that Section Grant requests for 2025 are still being accepted. Get any needed Safety Equipment, Range Gear, or Promotional Items now by simply filling out and submitting the online Section Grant Form.

Do you have any Section related questions?—A lot of common questions can be answered using the Section FAQ’s found HERE on the NAR website.

Section Member Affiliation—Are you a member of a Section? Please log into your NAR account, go to your Member Profile page and scroll down to the “More Member Options”.  Click on the “Clubs/Additional Members” link to add the Section(s) you’re affiliated with.

Please Note: Adding a Section to your NAR Profile does not automatically make you a member of that Section. You are responsible for reaching out to the Section that you are interested in for details on how to become an actual member of that Section.

Respectfully,

Chuck Neff

SAC Chairman

The NAR’s premier “paying forward” program, the American Rocketry Challenge (www.rocketrychallenge.org), will wrap up its 2026 school year season with a National Finals on Saturday, May 16 at the Great Meadow facility in The Plains, VA, about 45 miles west of DC. These Finals are a public free-entry event for spectators, with flying starting at 8:30 AM and continuing until early afternoon. 120 NAR volunteers will be there operating the event as range crew, and the best 100 of the 1,107 teams of 6^th through 12^th graders (about 5000 students) from 46 states across the US who originally enrolled in the program will compete there for $100,000 in prize money. The 1^st place winner will get the opportunity to get a free trip to the Farnborough (UK) Air Show in July as guests of RTX (Raytheon) to compete there against the winning teams from similar events in the UK, France, Japan, and the Ukraine. The rules for next year’s ARC program, our 25^th year of operation, will also be released at the end of the day. 

 

The list of teams selected to compete in this year’s Finals is posted here. These teams earned their selection by having the best scores on their local “qualification flights”, observed by an NAR adult member and conducted by March 31. 592 teams made it to the point of submitting scores. The competition to make Finals selection was tough; the cutoff score this year was 23.28 (sum of the best two of up to three submitted flight scores), about five points better than in any previous year.    The success of the teams that enter ARC is the direct result of the involvement and support of hundreds of local NAR mentors who teach them, and launch site support from dozens of NAR sections that let them fly, all across the US. ARC is an NAR-wide team activity where our collective efforts are successfully building the next generation of US aerospace professionals and NAR rocketeers. Check out this video from the 2025 Finals, produced by our ARC sponsorship partners at the Aerospace Industries Association, to see what impact we are having: https://youtu.be/f474gEmvJU4

 

 

The Heat Is On! 

Exposure to high temperatures can have adverse effects on your rockets. The most severe internal environment, because it is a longer lasting environment during flight, is the rocket motor case temperature. Per National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) code NFPA 1125, rocket motors up to 160 Newton-seconds (N-sec) total impulse are permitted to have a case temperature up to 200^oC (392^oF) and rocket motors that exceed 160 N-sec total impulse are permitted to have a case temperature up to 220^oC (428^oF). Ejection charges may be hotter but last for a shorter duration. 

 

The most severe external environment is probably in your car. Portions of a closed car interior on a 38^oC (100^oF) day can reach over 66^oC (150^oF) within an hour and rockets may be exposed to this environment for several hours. Even rockets that are in the open, e.g. on a table in direct sunlight, can be warmed to temperatures up to 22^oC (40^oF) hotter than the ambient air temperature. Aerodynamic heating is typically not an issue except for multi-Mach rockets.

 

Adhesives can soften and weaken at elevated temperatures. Epoxies heated above their glass transition temperature will be become rubbery (but return to their glassy, solid state upon cooling). For example, the glass transition temperature for West Systems 105 epoxy resin and its hardeners is around 55^oC. Plastic materials may lose strength and warp at elevated temperatures. An example is PLA polymer commonly used for 3D printing. Its glass transition temperature is typically 60^oC to 65^oC.  

 

Batteries are also affected by high temperatures. Typical 18650 lithium-ion batteries can operate safely without immediate adverse effects up to 45 ^oC to 55^oC (113 ^oF to 131^oF). Some sources suggest an upper limit of 70^oC (158^oF); operating above this limit increases a risk of fire or explosion from thermal runaway or pressure buildup. Battery charging of lithium-ion batteries is not recommended above 45^oC (113^oF). For alkaline batteries the accepted maximum operating temperature is approximately 54^oC (130^oF)

 

There are some preventative actions the flyer can take. Consider the temperature properties of your batteries, adhesives, and building materials and use them in appropriate locations (no hot melt adhesives, please). Keep your car as cool as possible (e.g. open windows and sunshades when parked). Keep your rockets out of the direct sun; an emergency mylar blanket can be an effective sunshade. Painting your rockets in lighter colors will also help (during car testing a dark colored car was over 8^oC (15^oF) warmer inside than a lighter colored car after a couple of hours).

 

Steve Lubliner (from Tucson, Arizona where it’s a dry heat, like an oven)

NAR Safety Committee Chairman

Contest Rocketry News

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 May 9th at 9pm (ET). Current topics include;  RCP voting, NARAM, next year’s NRC events. 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

Read more about it at the NAR latest competition news.

Competition Meetings, Join Us! - National Association of Rocketry

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

NRC Scoreboard

Check out the latest results on the NRC scoreboard!

Al de la Iglesia

NAR Contest Board Chair

narcbchair@nar.org

aiglesia@gmail.com

Membership 9,132
Family: 452

Junior: 510
Life: 149
Young Adult: 2,785
Senior: 4,454
Senior Plus: 722
Teacher + Students: 60

 

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Jr Level 1: 187

Level 1: 2,215

Level 2: 1,672
Level 3: 707