Rocketry Information

Happy New Year!If you’ve listened to the latest episode of The Rocketry Show podcast, you know that I recently bought myself a nice, entry-level digital SLR camera. I’m hoping to get better photos of my family, of my rockets for this blog, and better v… […]

I knew this was coming. I knew it for a couple years. I expected it to come sooner, and when it didn’t, I started to think maybe it wasn’t happening.But it has happened. The Estes G40-7 composite motor is gone.This 29mm single use motor was manufacture… […]

This is a little tool I made. I made it to help me create perhaps a dozen or so little rockets and build them all as close to exactly the same as I could. It’s just a used motor casing with a 1/4 inch length of BT-20 body tube glued around the base of … […]

This month, I succeeded in re-starting this blog through my #NaRoBloMo effort. I didn’t seem to make an impact on social media. I think I’m the only person who used that joking hashtag.But one reader did join me. Kirk G, a longtime listener and support… […]

Once I got the Semroc Bandit all glued together, the next kit I semi-randomly pulled from the build pile was the Estes Nike-X, another nice BT-55 kit.I like BT-55 rockets. It might be my favorite low power tube size. I’m not sure why. A BT-55 tube (1.3… […]

A few months ago, I learned from Bill Cooke’s Rocketeer’s Corner blog that my favorite sanding sealer, by Brodak, was out of stock.I learned about Brodak from Bill’s blog, and I love using it to seal the wood grain on balsa fins.Everyone has a favorite… […]

At 2pm today, NASA live-streamed an hourlong program on sounding rockets – research rockets which carry scientific payloads on short, suborbital trajectories.Here is the video:If the player does not work for you on this blog, CLICK HERE to go directly … […]

The ducted ejection motor mount system for the Semroc Bandit can be seen above. This is apparently a re-creation of the original Estes baffle system in the 1971 Bandit. The parts fit together well, and it’s pretty neat – although it does add significan… […]

I’ve realized I made a mistake with #NaRoBloMo. That is, I promised to follow up the first N00b T00b post with another N00b T00b post, addressing specific topics. Then, I kept feeling obligated to write that before writing anything else, making this bl… […]

I was trying to illustrate the next post on the N00b T00b last night, with a screenshot from OpenRocket, on the MacBook Air I use for The Rocketry Show podcast.But the 3D image of designs in OpenRocket on this MacBook all display as really tiny.This is… […]