Model rocketry, that is.

As I and others have noted, the hobby, which has spawned many careers in space engineering, and engineering and science in general, is dying, both as a result of competition from alternative (seemingly more exciting to many) activities, and needless and brainless overregulation in the name of the war on terror.

A web site has been set up to combat this. They badly need donations. It's a worthy cause.

[Via Hobbyspace and emailer Andrew Case]

Finally Rand, you realize what a hoax the "war on terror" is and how it's only leading to the eroding of freedom. Republican voters should get a clue that Bush is a Republican in name only abd a big spending lover of government bloat in reality.

The only problem is the two senators blocking the exemption of hobby rocketry are democrats Schumer and Lautenburg. The only good point is Lautenburg talked to hobbyists. Schumer had to walk his dog wash his hair and no one is available to talk to. Now I know why they call them lobbyists, "Hey senator I want to talk to you!"

I'm a small part of this "dying" hobby, and we are far from dead yet. On the contrary, many things are more exciting than they ever have been; we have computer payloads, hybrid motors, and "daddy" rockets like we've dreamed of. That's why it's so frightening to have this utterly stupid regulatory thing happening at what should be the beginning of sport rocketry's golden age.

When you get down to basics, the regulators are afraid that our hobby rockets "might" be used for evil purposes. Okay. There are three transport mechanisms that have been used by terrorists on American soil to kill people: rental trucks, commercial airliners, and the Postal Service. Going to restrict those? I thought not.