Login Form

Who's Online

We have 15 guests and no members online

LAUNCH Parties

Vern and Gleda

Estes Industries founders Vern and Gleda Estes sporting LAUNCH Magazine hats at NARAM-48 in Phoenix.

Dars Gang

Apollo 8's Bill Anders and Dot Cunningham, wife of Apollo 7's Walt Cunningham, surrounded by rocketeers at the 40th anniversary celebration of Apollo 7's flight. They include Bruce McLawhorn, Stuart Powley, Bill Gee, John Dyer, James Gartrell and Mark Mayfield.

Mark & Deb

LAUNCH's Deb Martin and Mark Mayfield at LDRS-26 in Nevada.

Steve and Walt - NARAM 50

Rocketeer Steve Kristal goes over the details of his Apollo pad test model to Apollo 8's Walt Cunningham at NARAM-50.

Steve and Emma

Steve Kristal and daughter Emma at NARAM-50.

Mark and Deb

Deb Martin and Mark Mayfield of LAUNCH Magazine looking in four different directions at LDRS 26 at Jean Dry Lake bed in Nevada.

Mark and Lee

Mark Mayfield with Centuri Engineering founder Lee Piester, who is signing the Little Joe II model featured on the cover of LAUNCH's first issue in 2006.

Dot and Walt

Dot and Walt Cunningham with some of the 30-plus Semroc Saturn 1B models built for Apollo 7's 40th anniversary luncheon in Dallas.

Deb at NARAM-48

LAUNCH's Deb Martin at the NARAM-48 awards banquet in 2006.

Carl and Buzz

Semroc's Carl McLawhorn, at right, shows Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin a story in LAUNCH at the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) in Virginia. In the middle is Stephanie Mayfield, daughter of LAUNCH co-founder Mark Mayfield.

Betty, Vern, Gleda and Mark

Betty Piester, Vern and Gleda Estes and Mark Mayfield at NARAM-48.

Rocketplane

Mark Mayfield, Deb Martin and Rocketplane's George French III at the X PRIZE Cup exhibition in Alamogordo, N.M.

Dot and Walt

Walt and Dot Cunningham greet a young rocketeer at the LAUNCH Magazine table at NARAM-50.

Mark and Walt

Mark Mayfield and Walt Cunningham share a laugh at NARAM-50.

Estes Scout Anniversary

Red River Rocketry's John Dyer along with LAUNCH's Deb Martin and Mark Mayfield at the 50th anniversary commemorative Estes Scout launch at NARAM-50.

Carl and Saturn 1Bs

Semroc's Carl McLawhorn with some of the 30-plus Saturn 1B models built for Apollo 7's 40th anniversary luncheon. The Apollo 7 command module is behind him.

Buzz with Rocketeers

Rocketeers Stuart Powley, Bill Gee, John Dyer and Bruce McLawhorn with Buzz Aldrin at the 40th anniversary luncheon for Apollo 7 in Dallas.

Deb, Walt, Dot and Mark

Deb Martin and Mark Mayfield with Walt and Dot Cunningham at the Rocketeer's Reunion at NARAM-50.

Redstone Preparation

LAUNCH's Mario Perdue prepping his upscale Mercury Redstone at NARAM-49 while Aerotech's Gary Rosenfield makes a phone call.

Mario and Redstone

Mario Perdue with his xx-scale Mercury Redstone at NARAM-49.

Vince and Mark

NASA's Vince Huegele and LAUNCH Magazine's Mark Mayfield with their scale models at NARAM-50.

Matt Steele

ATK's Matt Steele visits the LAUNCH offices in Manhattan.

Neil and Mark

Neil Armstrong and Mark Mayfield at the 40th anniversary luncheon for Apollo 7 in Dallas.

Charlie and Mark

With Apollo 16's Charle Duke at the opening of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration in Huntsville, Alabama.

Scott and Mark

Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter and LAUNCH's Mark Mayfield at Carpenter's outside home in Vail, Colorado.

Walt, John and Bob

Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham with rocketeers John Dyer and Bob Sanford.

Neil and Alan

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Alan Bean (back to camera) at the 40th anniversary luncheon for Apollo 7 in Dallas.

Cover Shot

The original cover shot for LAUNCH's first issue, taken inside the Empire State Building in New York.

LAUNCH Hat

The iconic LAUNCH Magazine hat.

Frontpage Slideshow | Copyright © 2006-2011 JoomlaWorks Ltd.

From My Workbench - 12/2008

It's been a long time since my last update and a lot has happened since then. For the December issue I built and flew an up-scale of the Centuri USS America. As usual, I enjoyed to project even though it was damaged in the process of getting a launch photo and space limitations caused the article to get dropped from the issue '“ those

are the breaks of the game. I've since moved on to a much more challenging project but it has been on hold while I worked on the web site.

Web Site

Speaking of web site changes'¦ We've added several items to the online shopping offering including books and the many What's Hot items from LAUNCH. These additions will help you find some of the many things we discuss in the pages of the magazine.

We've added a Discussion Board so you have a place to talk about the various articles in the magazine and on the web site. If you're having problems with the site you can post a message there to let us know. If you agree or disagree with something one of the LAUNCH authors has written you can post a message to let us and the other readers know what you think. The Discussion Board is also connected to the online articles so you can post your comments directly from the article page and you can read the most recent comments about an article at the bottom of the same page. All the old comments have been ported to the new system so you can still read what's been said about past articles.

FAA Ruling

Another item of significance that has recently happened is the finalization of the FAA NPRM on amateur rocketry. The final ruling has been published in the Federal Register and will take effect 60 days from the publishing date. That means the new rules will be used to govern rocketry activities in 2009. I suggest that every rocket hobbyist take the time to read this document and know what the changes are.

The published rule will simplify some of our activities in the future. One example of this is that the previous classifications for Model Rocket and Large Model Rocket have been combined as a Class 1 '“ Model Rocket. Class 1 rockets do not require FAA notification before flying them so you can now fly many of your rockets whenever you want. On the other hand, flying Class 2 '“ High Power Rockets will require that modelers provide more information to the FAA when a waiver is requested.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Mario

Books


NASA News

  • NASA has selected the 2012 class of Space Technology Research Fellows.

    Read more...
  • NASA is lending the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in[…]

    Read more...
  • The Soyuz spacecraft launched at 10:01 p.m. CDT.

    Read more...
  • NASA has announced a modification of its NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract with Space Exploration[…]

    Read more...
  • The second SpaceX demonstration launch for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) has been rescheduled for[…]

    Read more...

LAUNCH Magazine Online, Powered by Joomla! Joomla templates by SiteGround