Today's Saturn V launch

[Doug G]

Congrat's to Steve and this project. I too have been following it online for the past few months. Maybe someday he'll come out west for us to see it.

I'm an L2 BAR (born-again rocketeer) and have noticed this hobby/sport coming along way in the past 20 or so years. The detail that goes into the avionics (some doubly or triply reduntant), construction techniques, and even the development of custom motors (solid, liquid, and hybrids) is astonishing. I attend launches at Black Rock Desert (BALLS, XPRS, Mudrock) each year and am impressed at the size and scope of some of these so called model rockets. At first I was impressed to watch rockets powered by M and N engines and then last summer started witnessing launches with P, Q, R and larger engines. Quite thrilling for someone who has never been to a "real" rocket launch.

Watching these folks accomplish what they do along with FIRST students do with technology and their robots makes me feel proud to be in a country where these opportunities exist for folks. What people can accomplish and the barriers they can break through continue to erode over time. When I started in FIRST, I had no idea that my students would be able to use CNC equipment, welders, and such to build a robot and then program at the level they do. Now today we see private individuals developing their own space programs like Rutan and Virgin, Musk and SpacEx, Carmack and Armadillo, Lunar X-Prize, etc... It makes me feel optimistic about our future in space once again.