Tag Archives: China Lake Museum

Speaker List for the 2019 RRS Symposium

Posted on by

The RRS is glad to announce our list of presenters at the 2019 Reaction Research Society Space and Rocketry Symposium on Saturday, April 27, 2019. This all-day public event will be starting at 8:45am, at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, California and run to 5pm. The community center is right next door to the Gardena Police Department.

Welcome to all space and rocketry enthusiasts!

Sessions will be 25 minutes each with a brief 5-minute question and answer period. We’re glad to have representatives from industry, federal and state government agencies and academia all present for this event. We’re also glad to the many exhibitors including Rocketry Organization of California, Spaceport LA, Aerospace Corporation and Additive Rocket Corporation joining us in the ballroom.

The morning schedule for the 2019 RRS symposium

Breaking the list into two parts, the symposium continues into the afternoon. We have decided not to hold the panel session at the end as we were able to fill our roster quite easily. We’re very thankful to the many presenters able to come share their thoughts and ideas with our public audience.

The afternoon schedule for the 2019 RRS sympsoium

The symposium as of this posting has 380 (free) tickets sold on Eventbrite. We expect to have the same great crowd as last year and hopefully more can share the event with us. This will be our last symposium for at least two years, so please come join us if you can. If not, you can always find us at the next RRS monthly meeting (May 10, 2019).

The Reaction Research Society is proud to hold the 2019 Space and Rocketry Symposium at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, CA, April 27, 2019, starting at 8:45am.

Ken Nakaoka Community Center
1670 West 162nd Street
Gardena, California, 90247
(310) 217-9537

Gardena is in the south bay of Los Angeles
Easy access from the I-405 on Western Avenue or using the CA Hwy. 91

Come see what we have in store for 2019!

75th anniversary symposium was a success!

Posted on by

The Reaction Research Society (RRS.ORG) was happy to celebrate its 75th anniversary as the country’s oldest continuously operating amateur rocketry society on April 21, 2018. At the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, California, we shared this special occasion with over 300 people from the Los Angeles and San Diego area and welcomed several guests from places further away.

(left to right) Osvaldo Tarditti, Bill Janczewski, Dave Nordling, Jim Gross, Frank Miuccio, Larry Hoffing, Alastair Martin, Richard Garcia, Bill Claybaugh, Drew Cortopassi, Chris Lujan

RRS member, Michael Lunny mans the front desk at the 2018 RRS symposium

RRS members, Jim Gross and John Mariano at the 2018 symposium

Osvaldo Tarditti, George James, George Dosa and Jerry Irvine at the RRS symposium

Bill Claybaugh and RRS founder, George James, at the 2018 RRS symposium

The RRS had a display of some of our society projects past and present. Also, some of our members had their projects on display including Richard Garcia’s liquid rocket and Bill Claybaugh’s massive two-stage rocket.

Richard Garcia discusses his liquid rocket vehicle at the 2018 symposium

An early liquid rocket test motor from George Dosa, furfuryl alcohol and nitric acid

RRS micrograin rockets on display with historical notes

Bill Claybaugh, Osvaldo Tarditti and Bill Janczewski stand before Claybaugh’s two-stage solid rocket on display

Photo montage of micrograin rocket launches

All thirteen RRS mail flights from 1947 – 1990

We had copies of the special 75th anniversary edition of the RRS Astrojet newsletter available for sale at the symposium. Thank you to Bill Janczewski for his hard work in making this high quality newsletter and the bright sign on the column for everyone to see as they came in. The Astrojet can still be purchased through our RRS.ORG website at our PayPal button if you write a note for “Astrojet, (X) copies” and send your mailing address.

Or just simply contact the RRS by email.
secretary@rrs.org

75th anniversary issue of the Astrojet newsletter on sale

We shared our exhibition space with the Los Angeles Air Force Base’s (LA AFB) Space and Missile Command (SMC) as they presented the long history of SMC. Our thanks to Lt. Col. Porter and his team for having a huge display of the Air Force’s contributions to space, national security and improvements to our daily lives. Also, the air-driven rocket launcher demonstration in the courtyard was a big hit.

Karen Austin, Director of SMC History at the 2018 RRS symposium

LA AFB SMC history on display at the 2018 RRS symposium

Lt. Col. Porter speaks at the SMC history exhibit

Also, just outside the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, was our colleagues at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Community Safety Partnership (CSP). Officers who have supported and participated in the rocket build classes we’ve had with Watts and Compton area schools were on hand to answer questions and show off the fun we’ve had over this last year.

LAPD CSP at the 2018 RRS symposium

We had several universities exhibiting and presenting at the RRS symposium including University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Southern California (USC) and California State University Long Beach (CSULB). All of them had impressive work to show with flights pending in just a few weeks before the semester or quarter ends.

CSU Long Beach exhibits and presents at the 2018 RRS symposium

The Additive Rocket Corporation of San Diego exhibited and presented their unique technology.

The Additive Rocket Corporation of San Diego exhibits and presents at the RRS symposium

Other exhibitors at the RRS symposium was our fellow amateur rocketry group, Rocketry Organization of California (ROC).
Rocketry Organization of California

ROC on display at the 2018 RRS symposium

The Notre Dame Academy was also present at our symposium.
Notre Dame Academy – WIkipedia

Notre Dame Academy at the 2018 RRS symposium

Our friends at the China Lake Museum also had a display to show the Navy’s contributions to rocketry and the national defense.
China Lake Museum

China Lake Museum on display at 2018 RRS symposium

U.S. Rockets was also exhibiting at the RRS symposium.
U.S. Rockets – Jerry Irvine

U.S. Rockets exhibiting at the RRS symposium

We had several speakers presenting on current and historical topics of professional and amateur rocketry including Jacky Calvignac of Northrop Grumman, our founder George James of his organization, The Rocket Research Institute (RRI), John Steinmeyer of Orbital-ATK and David Krause of NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia who called in by Skype.

George James, founder of the RRS, presents on behalf of the RRI

Jacky Calvignac shows the propulsion programs at Northrop Grumman

High School Rocket Propulsion Lab and new RRS members present their test firings from the RRS MTA

Aerospace Corporation’s presentation on additive manufactured propellant grains

We thank all of our attendees, presenters, exhibitors and just everyone who stopped in and had a good time with us. The RRS would like to especially thank Tony Richards for his photography taken at the RRS symposium.

The RRS will discuss at our next monthly meeting on May 11th if we’ll have another symposium next year in 2019. Based on the overwhelming response, this is very likely.

April 2017 meeting

Posted on by

The RRS held its monthly meeting on Friday, April 14th at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena. The meeting was called to order at 7:42pm. The meeting agenda was simplified to discuss only matters pertaining to the symposium which is taking place on Saturday the 22nd. All executive council members were in attendance and many of our regular members were also present including Greg Coleman.

Osvaldo, Frank and Chris

Nearly all of our speakers have confirmed with Frank and a final agenda will be posted on the RRS.org website once it is finalized by Tuesday, the 18th. We have added the University of California Irvine to our list of presenters.
UC Irvine – Rocket Project

With the community center’s permission, the exhibition hall will prepared by some of the RRS members for the symposium on the Friday night before (6:30-9:00pm). The symposium starts at 9am, but exhibitors are encouraged to come in early Saturday 7:30-8:00am to get ready before we start.

Apogee Astronautics was very kind to loan to the RRS an inert SuperLoki booster to be on display beside the RRS’s SuperDosa full-scale mockup at the symposium. Richard will bring sawhorses to support the SuperLoki booster for everyone to see.

Norton Sales has promised to provide a few aerospace history pieces for the exhibition which will also be great additions.
Norton Sales – North Hollywood, CA

The China Lake museum is a new addition to our exhibitors which is great.
China Lake Museum

A taco vendor has been booked for the event so there will be food available on site for purchase at the community center. There are several local restaurants in the area surrounding the Ken Nakaoka Community Center. There are even more restaurants to the south at Western Avenue and Artesia Blvd. (CA Hwy 91).

The address is on our flyers but here it is again below for convenience. It is between the Gardena Police Station and the fire station. The symposium is April 22nd, from 9:00am to 5:00pm.

Ken Nakaoka Community Center
1670 W. 162nd Street
Gardena, CA, 90247

Richard Garcia and Chris Lujan will be managing the presentation room and speakers. Osvaldo, Frank and I will be managing the exhibition hall or any other issues that arise.

The RRS still needs volunteers from our membership and we hope to have everyone come out to this special event. RRS staff and volunteers can be identified by badges that will be worn at the event. We will have a sign up book for all of our visitors. The RRS will also have membership applications available for those who wish to join us at the event.

I will be posting one last update to the symposium here on the RRS website which will include the final agenda. For questions regarding the symposium, you can email Frank who is the symposium director.
vicepresident@rrs.org

The meeting concluded at 9:19pm. The next monthly meeting will be Friday, May 12th. Let me know if there are any questions or corrections to make.
secretary@rrs.org