If you've been under a rock for the last week or so, you might have missed all the celebrations surrounding the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. You might also have missed Australia's involvement in televising that moment to 600 odd million people around the world. The Australian Mint has struck a commemorative 50c piece in honour of the occasion. Keep an eye on your change in coming months, or, jump straight to the Australian Mint's website and grab an uncirculated coin including the cover.

In what will be the biggest story this year in the global hobby rocketry community, Judge Reggie Walton has issued his final ruling in the long running case of NAR/TRA vs BATFE. The communication from TRA President Ken Good spells out the results. At this early stage, I don't know if this judgement will have any effect on rocketry in Australia, but any effect can only be positive. Several Australian states labour under draconian laws that label Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant (APCP) as an explosive. This ruling in an American court has scientifically proven that APCP is not an explosive, and the BATFE listed it without any regard to fact. Once the dust has settled in America and the full effect of this ruling is seen, hopefully we may be able to use it as a precedent for having some of our own laws relaxed. Make no mistake, this win is a huge step forward for legitimising our hobby amongst those agencies that don't understand how safe and responsible we are.

At first, this post might seem somewhat off topic. I assure you it isn't.

Australian Labor Party Senator Stephen Conroy is attempting to introduce mandatory Internet filtering at the ISP for all Australians. His proposal is for a two tier system. One will be targeted toward families and children, and it will filter the Government's own blacklist of sites as well as additional material that may be considered offensive. The other will only filter the Government blacklist. Every Australian Internet connection will be subject to one or the other of these filtering schemes.

Senator Conroy says that the schemes will also filter out "illegal content". Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what he means by that. The current blacklist, maintained by ACMA, has roughly 1300 entries. The Senator suggests that this list will grow to over 10 000 entries. Clearly, there is intent to seriously curtail access to a vast body of content on the Internet. The blacklist has been exempted from being discoverable via FOI requests, so we'll have no idea what's actually on it. Already, Family First Senator Steven Fielding is drooling at the idea of an Australia wide censorship regime, and is pushing for sites dealing with anorexia and euthanasia to be added to the list - sites that aren't actually illegal. Additionally, the filtering infrastructure will allow the Government and ISP staff to snoop on all your Internet activity (including Internet banking and online shopping), ostensibly to log and report on attempts to access content they deem illegal.

What does this have to do with rocketry? Many Australian rocketeers have an interest in propulsion research. While the greater body of researchers are offshore, it follows that most websites that deal with the topic are also offshore. It's only a hop, step, and a jump to seeing propulsion research websites being classified as explosives manufacturing sites and then added to the blacklist. In it's current form, Senator Conroy's plan for Cyber Safety doesn't include any method of appeal to have sites removed from the blacklist.

I urge all rocketeers, indeed all thinking Australians, to educate themselves about this proposal. There are many reasons for opposing this plan. Contact your local federal member of Parliament and express your disgust at what can only be described as a censorship and snooping scheme of Orwellian proportions.

Further information is available at:-
No Clean Feed website
System Administrator Mark Newton's letter to Hon. Kate Ellis MP

The long wait for the next printing of Peter Alway's classic book is over. I'm waiting for my copy, but I have it on good authority that it contains the data for the Redstone Sparta, the launch vehicle that sent Australia into orbit.

Get it from the NARTS section of the NAR website, or from ARA Press.

Ever been confused about what AeroTech RMS reload goes in what case? Rouse-Tech, licensed makers of AeroTech RMS compatible hardware, have created Motor Matrix to help show you what load goes in which case. They are even linked to ThrustCurve.org so you can easily find out the relevant info for the load. Well worth a look, and bookmarking for future reference.

Rouse-Tech Motor Matrix

Suburban Rocketry are having a sale. 15% off all Semroc kits. Discount will be applied after order received. 5/3/08 to 11/3/08

Dave 'scoop1261' Couzens of CGN Rocketry has become a dealer for Cosmodrome Rocketry and BSD High Power Rocketry kits. He has a good range in stock and ready to go, and his prices are great.

While you are placing your order, don't forget to congratulate Dave on his successful Tripoli Level 3 certification flight at the Florida Winter Nationals last month. Dave flew a BSD Thor-X to 11683 feet on an AT M1297W, with a successful dual deployment recovery. See the pictures of Dave's build and flights here.

Hi everyone,

A Christmas present for all!!!

We have been given sufficient approvals to re-start the NSWRA in January. All documentation will be finalised third week of January - just in time for a launch day at the end of the month. I'm guessing the 27th at this stage (to avoid co-inciding with Australia Day). At a minimum all black powder motors will be approved for flight with E to G to follow soon after (depends how the documentation proceeds with CASA in January).

A flyer will be issued to the hobby shops soon to notify any new people of this recommencement.

Things that still need to be done before that date:
-Allocate tasks to individuals. This includes, Launch Control Officers, Range Safety Officers, Treasurer, Secretary, Vice President, President (if your keen), etc.
-Finalise club's policies and procedures
-Determine membership fees - they will be higher than previous years due to higher insurance premiums
-do some cleaning up at the launch site - the grass is overgrown in some areas and needs to be cut back.

Further notifications will be sent out early next year to commence some of this work.

At this stage I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Regards,
Andrew