You need to make your plans for the 2008 National Sport Launch, to be held in Orangeburg, South Carolina on Memorial Day weekend, May 24-26, and sponsored in part by SoAR! Three days of flying from nearly a square mile of front lawn!!

Small rockets, big rockets, and a few Really Big Rockets will be taking to the air!

Teams from both South Atlanta High School, and South Forsyth High School are preparing for the trip to The Plains, Virginia for the 2008 Team America Rocketry Challenge Finals on May 17.

This will be the second straight appearance for South Atlanta, and the first trip for South Forsyth.

Good luck to both teams!

And a heartfelt apology to South Atlanta High, which I (Roy) misnamed as "South Fulton" in the previous version of this entry.

Remember that due to the National Sport Launch in Orangeburg, South Carolina on Memorial Day Weekend, SoAR's monthly launch for May has been moved up a week to Saturday, May 17, and it will be a Bring-Your-Own-Launcher affair. We'll still have an Launch Control Officer, but he/she will simply give the all clear for the flyer to count down and launch their rocket. More details as we get closer to that launch.

As many of you well know, we have had a big problem with the trees surrounding the Mill Springs site. Many rockets seem to be unnaturally attracted to the trees such that they come as close as they can to missing them, but still end up in them, way out of our reach.

But now, SoAR has a secret weapon. SoAR is now the proud parent of a forty-foot telescoping fiberglass pole used by fire departments for knocking kittens out of tall trees....imagine what it can do for our rockets!

The pole comes with ten-pound counterweights to make it manageable at full extension.

At each SoAR launch, there will be a bucket (white, about 12" diameter) that is designated as Dale Windsor's Bucket O'Rockets. Land any part of your rocket in that bucket and you'll win a jackpot of rocket kits. If no one gets in the bucket at a launch, the prizes will roll over to the next launch, and another prize will (occasionally) be added!

The current list of prizes (as of February 2008):

• limited edition Roachwerks Saturn IB kit
• Estes SpaceShipOne
• ASP WAC Corporal
• Estes Scissor-Wing Transport (the newest re-issue)
• NOVA ASP