44,000 feet PLUS

Here's one... a new world altitude record for TRA member John Rockdale in setting a new Tripoli Rocketry Association record for 'M' class altitude. John flew his "Tupelo" rocket at the Mudroc launch held at Nevada's Black Rock Desert on Saturday June 19, 2004. The flight was also a record for all Tripoli motor classes. According to the on-board RDAS GPS instrumentation, John's rocket achieved a maximum altitude of 44,958 feet (13,707 meters) AGL. Both stages were recovered intact. Check out his website for details: http://www.jrockdale.com/tupelo.htm

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TV for Rocket Fans

As Ralph mentions in the story below, Discovery has been running the LDRS rocket shows again, but we might have missed all except "How High Can You Fly" which runs Saturday, September 25th at 1pm. However, in trying to get the schedule for these, I ran across another show that may be of interest to everybody: Black Sky: The Race For Space

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October Launch possibilities

Everyone: There was no launch this last weekend due to the athletic field not being available to us at the Cannon school. We have to schedule around their activities and Charles did not call and say it was available. So no launch that weekend. I was out at Williams farm last night with Terry Baucom and Kip was in the field Harvesting Corn, Yeah! He was finishing up for the day, he had been on that tractor for 6 hours and he was whooped. He said we needed to check with Mr. Williams about the status of the field however I think we will be good for the Oct 16th, 17th launch at the farm. One other important note is that the fields on the other side of Hopewell Church Rd. have already been harvested. I will call Mr. Williams next Thursday or Friday to see where the progress stands and if we can plan on launching on our regular weekend. Lets pray for dry weather for the next week or two. I know several of you were planning on attending the Orangeburg Freedom Launch last month at and due to it's cancellation has really messed everybody up. So in speaking with others there is a lot of interest to go back for their October launch which will be sponsored in October by ROSCO their NAR section. This means they may run the launch for a shorter launch window, I will call Bobby Weatherford and see what their plans are for the Oct 9th and 10th launch. I don't know what kind of vendors they will have if any, I'll try to find that out as well. The Discovery Channel rocketry specials are running again. Not sure if there are any other dates scheduled however I understand they are re-running those Rocket specials they did last fall. Just FYI Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC PREZ

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New Website

We're in the process of launching the new website, and so far we're pretty pleased. We've got a few bugs to work out with the icons scaling between browsers (the site is best viewed through Mozilla or Firefox, but will work OK through IE) The new site will allow us to do some really cool stuff for the membership, like having almost anybody submit a story for inclusion onto the site, being able to contact the membership through the site about club activities, keeping up with the leagal battles going on around our hobby, and being a clearing house for our hobby and all things rocket-like.

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That's Amore'

A really cool link from a website called Astronomy Picture of the Day, managed by the folks at the Goddard Space Flight Center. It is an animated GIF of a complete lunar cycle, or a Lunation. This is one of my favorite sites to visit on the web, with a new and facinating photo or graphic every day. Just copy the link into your browser... have fun! http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040829.html

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September ROCC launch SCRUBBED

Ralph hates to say this, but.... OK, We knew it was a strong posibility, but due to the current weather conditions, the planed Sunday launch out at the school on Popular Tent road is scrubbed. It's been a bummer of a summer launch season, storms, excessive wet conditions, ect, ect.. Ralph is working on coordinating a possable alternate launch. His contact with Mr Williams out at the Farm indicates that the corn cannot be harvisted unless it is dried, but has'nt had a chance to dry out yet. With weather as it has been, he maynot be able to harvest untill late October. Ralph is going to see if we can get a launch in at the school field before then, or if the crops are still unharvested, plan a small "C" and below/ low level launch out at the school location for the October launch. Ralph will keep me in formed so I can keep you informed, and Doc Russel is getting a new rocket web site up and running so we can keep us all informed. Keep your powder dry and your exhaust nozzles clear. Roy

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Commemorative patch available.

Those of you who may be familiar with the website "SpaceflightNow.com" may have already seen this but I hadn't untill just recently. At their Astronomy Now store there is a commemorative pacth honoring our fallen astronauts. This special 12-inch embroidered patch commemorates the U.S. astronauts who have made the ultimate sacrifice. The patch honors the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger STS 51-L and Columbia STS-107. Link to the site

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Launch Stuff, Sept 07, 2004

There is no re-scheduling of the Freedom Launch, (Freedom is cancelled for 2004) so the next opportunity to fly in Orangeburg will be their scheduled October launch which will be October 9th or 10th, this will be a ROSCO Launch (NAR event). The next regular Sport launch in Orangeburg will not be until Dec due to the EX Motor launch in November.

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Freedom Flight has been Cancelled

From the WWW.TRIPOLISC.ORG website: Freedom Launch Cancelation Folks, This has been a most difficult decision for your leadership to make. We realize the current predicted path of Frances takes it below South Carolina. Florida will take the brunt of the storm and it is predicted at this point to go into Alabama and western Georgia. However, keep in mind this is a very large storm and it reaches far beyond the path of its eye.

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Freedom Launch Weekend

Ralph sends this message: From Tripoli South Carolina's website. Break out the sunscreen, pack the rockets (and kids) and head to beautiful Orangeburg, South Carolina and fly on one of the best fields on the East Coast. This three day event is sponsored by ICBM (TRA) and ROSCO (NAR). September 4th and 5th are Sport Launch days followed by a Tripoli Rocketry Association Experimental Launch on September 6th. Range will open at 10am each day with a 10,000 ft. waiver.

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