The RRS December 13, 2024 meeting will only be via Zoom.
If you need the Zoom link please send an email to secretary@rrs.org or president@rrs.org. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm PST.
The RRS December 13, 2024 meeting will only be via Zoom.
If you need the Zoom link please send an email to secretary@rrs.org or president@rrs.org. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm PST.
The Monophobic Response by American Artist is an art installation and film-based project displayed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from November 1–4, 2024 ( LACMA ticket(s) link). Note: Check times if you are planning to go since LACMA is closing early on Saturday.
This artwork, created through LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab, reimagines a historic 1936 rocket engine test central to early American space exploration. The installation takes inspiration from Octavia E. Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower, which explores a dystopian future set in 2024, drawing parallels between Butler’s fictional narrative and present-day sociopolitical issues.
Central to the installation is a live performance and filmed re-creation conducted by American Artist in the Mojave Desert at the Reaction Research Society’s Mojave Test Area (MTA), where the test is portrayed within a barren, haunting landscape. The project examines societal ideals of “destiny” and human survival amid technological upheaval, as echoed in Butler’s narrative of Earthseed, a fictional religious community aspiring for interstellar migration as a means of survival.
The installation features artifacts from the rocket test, including a replica of the original engine. Founded in 1943, the Reaction Research Society (RRS) is the oldest continuously operating amateur rocketry group in the world conducting its events and outreach around the Los Angeles area and at their private testing site, the Mojave Test Area. Based on archival drawings provided by JPL, RRS members were able to faithfully reproduce a full-scale, fully firing prototype of the 1936 Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) liquid methanol/gaseous oxygen bi-propellant engine and static fire thrust stand designed by pioneers Jack Parsons and Frank Malina representing one of the very first liquid rocket engines made in the United States.
Jerry Irvine passed away October 17, 2023 in Nashville, TN. Jerry was a long-time presence in the field of rocketry. He was a successful salesman for Composite Dynamics often appearing at Lucerne Dry Lake with a briefcase with a mess of rocket engines inside. Often associated with Larry Teebken, John Davis, Dave Griffith, and Gary Rosenfield, Jerry could get those composite motor orders in and sell them to rocket people whom you could say weren’t ordinary stiffs. People came from all over the USA who wanted to rummage through Jerry’s briefcase. He knew the psyche of rocket peeps and they knew his. It was related to me that Jerry was an amazing salesman, he seems to have been a natural wonder. Korey Kline, of K2Hybrids, reflected that Jerry had lots of crazy ideas, but helped the rocket community, and possessed an R&D heart.
It has been reported that in the early 70’s he was a member of the Claremont Rocket Society and the NAR Polaris Section headquartered in Claremont, California. He made the occasional appearance at Reaction Research Society’s 40 acre Mojave Test Area in Cantil, CA according to Dave Crisalli. It’s also been documented that Jerry reached out privately to those who needed money to pursue their dreams. May he rest in peace.
Larry Hoffing/Treasurer/RRS.ORG (Est ‘43)
11/29/23