Hi there!

What is the procedure for launches held in foreign countries? Surely you
can't take your flammables with you? Do you let the destination country's
club know what you'll be needing?

I'm asking all these questions since we here in South Africa would like to
hold an International Rocketry Challenge here. We have an area similar to
the Salt flats in the US with an 'unlimited' altitude waiver available.

Would you be interested in such an event?

Kind regards,

Johann
www.rocketry.co.za

"SA_Rocketeer" <johanngr> writes:

> Hi there!
>
> What is the procedure for launches held in foreign countries?
> Surely you can't take your flammables with you? Do you let the
> destination country's club know what you'll be needing?

Typically pyro materials are sourced locally, not transported.

> I'm asking all these questions since we here in South Africa would
> like to hold an International Rocketry Challenge here. We have an
> area similar to the Salt flats in the US with an 'unlimited'
> altitude waiver available.
>
> Would you be interested in such an event?

Yes. What sort of downrange area is available?

Chris

How high is unlimited....................US has 100.000 feet and so has
Greenland, I know of one place where you can go higher, but it is allot
of paperwork.

Frank

REBEL wrote:
> How high is unlimited....................US has 100.000 feet and so has
> Greenland, I know of one place where you can go higher, but it is allot
> of paperwork.
>
> Frank
>
Greenland sounds interesting. I've never been fond of deserts. Prefer
Snow/Rain/Sleet etc. :)

On Sun, 03 Dec 2006 20:13:37 +0000, Init 6 <newsg> wrote:

>REBEL wrote:
>> How high is unlimited....................US has 100.000 feet and so has
>> Greenland, I know of one place where you can go higher, but it is allot
>> of paperwork.
>>
>> Frank
>>
>Greenland sounds interesting. I've never been fond of deserts. Prefer
>Snow/Rain/Sleet etc. :)

Isnt greenland technically a desert as well? I believe the artic and
antarctic are deserts.


Cheers Mike 8-{>

> What is the procedure for launches held in foreign countries? Surely you
> can't take your flammables with you? Do you let the destination country's
> club know what you'll be needing?

We took our own gear when we launched in Namibia.
Sourced the Nitrous in the country of origin, mind you.

> I'm asking all these questions since we here in South Africa would like to
> hold an International Rocketry Challenge here. We have an area similar to
> the Salt flats in the US with an 'unlimited' altitude waiver available.
>
> Would you be interested in such an event?

It sounds like fun.
and possibly, yes!

Concerning the launch areas:

We have two places that are possible for high altitude launches. First an
area called 'Verneukpan'. It has an area of 30km across it's longest side
and 10km across it's shortest side. It's a desert like area where they do
landspeed record attempts. Here we should get around 100 000ft clearance.
It is close to small towns where people can stay in 'guest houses' and get
food supplies.

The other area is called OTB and is owned by the Government and is used to
test large missiles and other "stuff". Clearance to launch into Space is
possible as the area uses airspace controlled by the SA AirForce. Sometime
ago a private 'rocketeer' tried to break the 100km altitude level. His
rocket didn't make it, as far as I know. You can have a look at the
facility here http://www.otb.co.za

The latter area was the host of our annual Rocket Camp. We launched a few
Rockets including a Hybrid built by one of our local clubs and a SRM-powered
Rocket built by another local club.

We are planning a large annual Rocket gathering in SA at the area known as
'Verneukpan'. We also would like to organise a Space Shot at the OTB area
every second year. To use the OTB area is quite expensive at around $35000
per day. They sponsored the use of their facility during our Rocket Camp.
They even launched a >Mach 5 Sounding rocket as a demonstration of what they
do there! A somewhat expensive demonstration.

Having a good relationship with the Government should allow us to use the
OTB area for a Space Shot every second year without having to worry about
the $$$.

Concerning the pyro materials:

We don't use any commercial Rocket products you know. I.e. AeroTech, Estes,
PML and so on are not available in South Africa. We have a company called
AeroSpace Research (ASR) which is currently the only company in South Africa
manufacturing Rocket products. BTW, I own ASR. We had to make do with what
is available and allowed here in SA. So, we manufacture our own Epoxy-based
propellant with which everyone here launches. We make kits and almost
everything needed by Rocketeers. Currently we import MissileWorks
altimeters and use locally made timers. Our motors are in the H to L range.
We currently do not compete with the APCP used by AeroTech and AMW and so
on. Our motors are larger than the APCP ones for a given size due to the
lower Isp of our propellant. However, we still have flights in large
rockets to 9000ft, which is high in anyone's book. A problem we currently
have is the fact that rockets going that high is difficult to find again.
To solve this issue we've been looking at GPS/GSM systems that are carried
with the Rocket. Once the flight is over you would text a message to the
GSM module which would then text the GPS coordinates back to you. We have a
good GSM network here and you can go anywhere and have a signal.

Any ideas on what we should look at when developing a system like this?

For more information about ASR visit [url down]

Cheers!

Johann Grobler
Founder SAASA and ASR
www.rocketry.co.za


"REBEL" <rebel> wrote in message
news:2980
[..]

When did you launch in the Namib? Any website with photos/videos and
details? How did it come about?

Sorry about all the questions. It's great to hear about such things
happening in our part of the world. We are busy with major plans to get
Rocketry going as an education-booster in Africa. It's going well so far in
SA.

Johann


"Damian Hall" <bla bla bla> wrote in message
news:nyig
[..]

On Dec 4, 12:38 am, "SA_Rocketeer" <johan> wrote:
> Sorry about all the questions. It's great to hear about such things
> happening in our part of the world. We are busy with major plans to get
> Rocketry going as an education-booster in Africa. It's going well so far in
> SA.

Have you got a website for South africa Rocketry?

UKRAs website would like to link with other international clubs and
associations.

Please send details via the webmaster contact form on the ukra website

http://www.ukra.org.uk

Thanks

UKRA Webmaster