New Mexico students completed a series of rocket launches at Spaceport America on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. Credits: Spaceport America
Amateur rocketry now ranges from the model rockets you buy at your local hobby store to high power rockets available to qualified adults. Some serious amateur rocketry groups go even further to advanced rockets that are big and powerful and go to high altitudes. Some even exceed the threshold of space.
Model rocketry grew rapidly in the 1950’s with the wave of interest in the Space Age that emerged after the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union. Model rockets that used safe, commercially available motors became widely available by the early 60s from companies like Estes. These avoided the significant dangers of mixing ones own propellants. Model rocketry remains a popular hobby for both youngsters and adults.
High power rocketry also uses relatively safe commercial motors but are significantly higher in power than those in basic model rockets. As young rocketeers grow into teenagers and adults, they seek to continue their hobby but with more challenging rockets. High Power has grown to become a popular hobby for adults. There are numerous clubs and regular rocket meets. These events must obtain a special clearance from the FAA for a given maximum altitude allowed for the day. High power rocketry requires training and certification from one of the rocketry organizations such as the Tripoli Rocketry Association.
Amateur rocketry, however, now extends even beyond high power to Advanced Rocketry. Numerous rocketry groups aim for high altitude records and some have passed the borderline of space, i.e. around 100km. Note that the participants in these efforts require advanced training and skills to deal with the dangers and complexities of building their own rocket solid rocket motors as well as liquid fuel engines and hybrids of solid and liquid propellants.
Chris McLeod, instructor for the rocket engineering program at Brazoswood High School in Clute, Texas near Houston, sent me the news that the 2022 senior “Goddard Rocket Team” designed and built an SRAD [student researched and designed] hybrid rocket which launched to a verified 45,482′ AGL (49,523′ MSL). This came within 1% of the 50,000′ … Continue reading Hybrid rocket built by Texas students sets an altitude record for high school launches→
The first European Rocketry Challenge (EUROC) inter-collegiate student rocketry competition is being held in Ponte de Sor, Portugal this week (October 21-25). EUROC is the first university rocket launch competition in Europe, which seeks to stimulate engineering students to design, build and launch their own vehicles EUROC was inspired by the Spaceport America Cup college … Continue reading Video: EUROC university student rocket competition underway in Portugal→
The latest episode of TMRO.tv Space program is now available: How to launch and land a model Falcon Heavy – Orbit 12.05 Joe Barnard of BPS.space joins us to talk about his work in making model rockets emulate larger, liquid fueled vehicles such as Falcon and Electron. He has created many amazing models and has … Continue reading TMRO Orbit 12.05 – “How to launch and land a model Falcon Heavy”→
I’ve posted a few times about Joe Barnard‘s scale model rocket projects that seek to emulate realistically the takeoff and landing characteristics of SpaceX rockets. Here is a report on the first flight of the Falcon Heavy model: Find more about Joe’s projects at BPS.space. You can also support his efforts at BPS.space is creating … Continue reading Video: First flight of BPS Space’s Falcon Heavy model rocket→
I’ve posted a couple of times about Joe Barnard‘s development of model rockets that can land vertically like a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage. (See posts here and here.) This article is about Barnard and his rockets: Meet the Amateur Rocketeer Building Self-Landing Replicas of SpaceX Rockets – Motherboard. Here is the first entry in an upcoming … Continue reading Videos: “Landing Model Rockets” – Barnard Propulsion Systems→
I recently posted about Joe Barnard adding thrust vector control and other advanced features to model rockets. The goal is to model not just the appearance of large rockets but how they take off and fly as well. This weekend, he successfully flew for the first time a model he built of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, … Continue reading Video: BPS.space flies Falcon Heavy scale model rocket→
An announcement from Spaceport America: Second Annual Spaceport America Cup Scheduled for June 19-23 at Spaceport America, NM 130 Teams of College and University Rocketeers from Around the Globe to Compete SPACEPORT AMERICA, N.M. (PRWEB) JUNE 13, 2018: Student rocketeers from around the globe will gather at Spaceport America June 21-23 for the Second Annual Spaceport … Continue reading 130 student teams to compete in 2nd Annual Spaceport America Cup rocket competition→
A message from Jack Colpas co-director of the RFTS Competition: Reach for the Stars ~ National Rocket Competition Through a NASA grant the Florida Space Grant Consortium sponsored 100 kids in the Reach for the Stars ~ National Rocket Competition. Building and launching a solid-fuel powered rocket is a fantastic way to turn kids on to STEM … Continue reading 2018 Reach for the Stars ~ National Rocket Competition→
Joe Barnard founded the company BPS.space to push scale model rocketry to new levels of sophistication: Barnard Propulsion Systems develops model rocketry components, aimed at closely matching the pace of advancement in the space-launch industry. Learning by experimentation is the most effective way to gain a deep understanding of new concepts, which is why providing hands-on experience … Continue reading Videos: BPS.space pushing scale model rocketry capabilities to new heights→
The Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) and the Mars Society are sponsoring a contest for liquid-fueled bi-propellant powered rockets built by college student teams: FAR/Mars Society Launch Contest Student Rocketry Teams Compete for FAR-MARS Prize MOJAVE, CA – Student-built rockets will streak into the stratosphere in Spring, 2018 as college and university engineering teams from around the … Continue reading $100k in prizes for student rocket contest sponsored by Mars Society & FAR→
The Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) and Spaceport America (near Las Cruces, New Mexico ) are sponsoring the Spaceport America Cup university student rocket competition, which will take place at the spaceport over June 20-24, 2017: The Spaceport America Cup is designed around IREC – the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition for student rocketry teams from all over the country … Continue reading Spaceport America Cup – Collegiate rocket competition in New Mexico, June 20-24, 2017→
Here is a report on the NASA Student Launch competition, which includes middle school through college level teams, which took place last week. (I included videos posted by some of the teams.) NASA Announces Preliminary Award Winners for 2017 Student Launch After a day of rocket launches during the 2017 Student Launch, NASA announced the challenge’s preliminary … Continue reading 2017 NASA Student Launch competition results→
