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Amateur rocketry, sometimes known as amateur experimental rocketry or experimental rocketry is a hobby in which participants experiment with fuels and make their own rocket motors, launching a wide variety of types and sizes of rockets. Amateur rocketeers have been responsible for significant research into hybrid rocket motors, and have built and flown a variety of solid, liquid, and hybrid propellant motors.

Amateur rocketry was an especially popular hobby in the late 1950s following the launch of Sputnik, as described in the novel Rocket Boys. However, amateur rockets can be dangerous because noncommercial rocket motors may fail more often than commercial rocket motors if not correctly engineered. An appalling accident rate led individuals such as G. Harry Stine and Vernon Estes to make model rocketry a safe and widespread hobby by developing and publishing the National Association of Rocketry Model Rocket Safety Code, and by commercially producing safe, professionally-designed and manufactured model rocket motors. Model rocketry by definition then became a separate and distinct activity from amateur rocketry.

As knowledge of modern advances in composite propellants became more available to the public, it became possible to develop amateur motors with greater safety. Hobbyists were no longer dependant on dangerous packed powder mixtures which could be delicate and unpredictable in handling and performance. [1]

The Tripoli Rocketry Association sanctions some amateur activities, which they call "research rocketry," provided certain safety guidelines are followed, and provided the motors are of relatively standard design.

On May 17, 2004 a group called the Civilian Space Exploration Team (CSXT) successfully launched the first amateur high-power rocket into space, achieving an altitude of 72 miles.^[1]

• Model rocketry
• High power rocket
• Portland State Aerospace Society

1. ^ CSXT web site: http://www.civilianspace.com/about/default.asp

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