Precautions and Safety
Model rocketry is a safe and widespread hobby. Individuals such as G. Harry Stine and Vernon Estes helped to ensure this by developing and publishing the NAR Model Rocket Safety Codes and by commercially producing safe, professionally designed and manufactured model rocket motors. The safety code is a list of guidelines and is not at all mandatory for those practicing model rocketry unless one is a member of the National Association of Rocketry.
One of the main motivations for the development of the hobby in the 1950s and 1960s was to provide young people the opportunity to construct flying rocket models without having to engage in dangerous construction of motor units and direct handling of explosive propellants.
The NAR and the TRA successfully sued the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives(BATFE) over the classification of Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant(APCP), the most commonly used propellant in high-power rocket motors, as an explosive. The March 13, 2009 decision by DC District court judge Reggie Walton removed APCP from the list of regulated explosives, essentially eliminating BATFE regulation of hobby rocketry.
Read more about this topic: Model Rocket
Famous quotes containing the words precautions and/or safety:
“We must take precautions against being prematurely honed sharp—since at the same time we are being prematurely honed thin.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“If we can find a principle to guide us in the handling of the child between nine and eighteen months, we can see that we need to allow enough opportunity for handling and investigation of objects to further intellectual development and just enough restriction required for family harmony and for the safety of the child.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)