National Events

vNARCON 2024 (December 2023)

The NAR’s fourth virtual NARCON is rapidly approaching and will be held January 26-28, 2024. If you haven’t attended a vNARCON before, you’re missing out on a tremendously affordable opportunity to learn from experts across the many disciplines of rocketry. Registrants can attend ManuFacts and hear first-hand about the latest products from company representatives. Throughout the event there will be opportunities to participate in social gatherings with your fellow rocketeers.

A highlight of every vNARCON are the keynote speakers! On Saturday night, January 27, vNARCON will feature two-time keynote speaker Bashar Rizk of the Osiris-RXex asteroid sample return mission. Bashar will provide a summary of the mission to date including what everyone has been waiting for- insights into the samples from the Osiris asteroid which were safely returned to Earth on September 24, 2023.

Of course, vNARCON 2024 will have breakout presentations. Some of the twelve or more featured presenters are:Jim Jarvis- Vertical Orientation Control; Jim Barrowman- Model Rocket Stability & Aerodynamic Equations; Rebecca Zurek- Supersonic Parachutes; Todd Smith- Limiting Risk in HPR Flights; and James Duffy- Building the Estes Little Joe II.

Your purchase of a ticket will admit you to ALL of three days including the keynote by Bashar Risk. Ticket holders will also have exclusive access for 90 days to ALL the recorded event content starting January 30. The cost? Individuals 15 years old and under are FREE. Individuals 16 years of age and older are $25 and the Family fee (two or more family members) is $45 for the entire weekend. The vNARCON 2024 registration website will open soon.

NSL -West 2024

For the third consecutive year, NSL West-2024 is hosted by the San Luis Valley Rocketeers under the direction of Event Director, Matt Abbey. NSL West 2024 will held May 25-27 (Sat-Sun-Mon) with the range opening each day at 8AM. NSL West will again feature the BEST waiver of any NAR event at 52,000AGL.

For 2024, Matt will be expanding the range to include at least three more 15/15 rails in the interest of supporting NAR members who have big projects in need of a high waiver. And the range will again feature 25-30 H-J suitable pads as well as 40 model rocket launch positions. There will also be a return of the Doug Gerard “Rocket Photography Pad” as the 1500’ pad. This pad will support the largest projects.

In the interest of stimulating more advance 2024 registrations, which helps Matt considerably when ordering supporting merchandise such as t-shirts, pre-registration will be cost noticeably less than on-site registration. So please plan to register as early as you can. More details in future announcements

vNARCON-2024 (November 2023)

The NAR’s fourth virtual NARCON is rapidly approaching and will be held January 26-28, 2024.

If you haven’t attended a vNARCON before, you’re missing out on a tremendously affordable opportunity to learn from experts across the many disciplines of rocketry. Registrants can attend ManuFacts and hear first-hand about the latest products from company representatives. Throughout the event there will be opportunities to participate in social gatherings with your fellow rocketeers.

A highlight of every vNARCON are the keynote speakers!

On Saturday night, January 27, vNARCON will feature two-time keynote speaker Bashar Rizk of the Osiris-RXex asteroid sample return mission. Bashar will provide a summary of the mission to date including what everyone has been waiting for- insights into the samples from the Osiris asteroid which were safely returned to Earth on September 24, 2023.

Of course, vNARCON 2024 will have breakout presentations.
Some of the twelve or more featured presenters are:

Jim Jarvis- Vertical Orientation Control; Jim Barrowman- Model Rocket Stability & Aerodyamic Equations; Rebecca Zurek- Supersonic Parachutes; Todd Smith- Limiting Risk in HPR Flights; and James Duffy- Building the Estes Little Joe II.

Your purchase of a ticket will admit you to ALL of three days including the keynote by Bashar Risk. Ticket holders will also have exclusive access for 90 days to ALL the recorded event content starting January 30.

The cost? Youngsters 15 years old and under are FREE. Individuals 16 years of age and older are $25 and the Family fee (two or more family members) is $45 for the entire weekend. Go to the vNARCON 2024 website to register beginning December 1st, 2023.

See you there!