ARDMORE, Alabama USA — All eyes are on pad number eleven as the countdown commences. The K550 instantly barks to life, raising the 1/2 scale Patriot on a column of smoke and flame. A roaring echo can be heard from the distant tree line as the missile travels to apogee, 2000 feet above.

WENDOVER, Nevada USA — Day One of LDRS 17 is history and it was an exciting opening to the Tripoli Rocketry Association's national launch, Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships, or LDRS for short. This year's launch is the first year the launch had been held on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

ARGONIA, Kansas USA — On Sunday, shortly before noon, a rocket named MINI-MAX, "Mini's to the Max" made history. A record 269 of 288 Estes A10-0 mini-engines lifted a 18.25 lb rocket off of pad Yellow 8 at Air Fest 3 near Argonia, Kansas. The designer and builder, Larry Drake, of Omaha, NE.

GERLACH, Nevada USA — At 2:00pm PST on November 23, 1996, the Reaction Research Society (RRS) launched an amateur rocket from the Black Rock Desert with live amateur television (ATV) cameras aboard. These ATV transmissions were recorded and are now available in .AVI format.

HAMPSTEAD, North Carolina USA — At 8:25 AM EDT, on a record cold Mother's Day morning on Sunday, May 11, a small group of space enthusiasts made amateur rocketry history by launching the first amateur rocket from a high altitude balloon, a concept known as a "rockoon".