Model Rocketry (magazine) - Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems

In July 1969, Publisher George Flynn attended the Southwestern Model Rocket Conference at Eastern New Mexico University. There he met Air Force Captain Forrest Mims, senior advisor to the Albuquerque Model Rocket Club. Mims told Flynn about a transistorized lamp flasher for tracking night launched rockets. He also described modulating Light Emitting Diodes to transmit data from the rocket to infrared detectors on the ground. Flynn invited Mims to write an article about his "Transistorized Tracking Light for Night Launched Model Rockets" and it was published in the September 1969 issue of Model Rocketry.

Mims was stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque NM with a fellow officer, Ed Roberts. They decided to form a company to sell electronic kits for projects like the tracking light. Mims, Roberts and two other coworkers formed Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in late 1969. The press release announcing the formation of MITS was published in the December 1969 issue of Model Rocketry. In January 1975 MITS introduced the Altair 8800 computer and the personal computer revolution was launched. Bill Gates and Paul Allen moved to Albuquerque in 1975 to write Altair BASIC and soon started Microsoft.

Several copies of Model Rocketry magazine and the prototype tracking light are on display at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in their "STARTUP: Albuquerque and the Personal Computer Revolution" exhibit. Mr. Mims donated his MITS 816 calculator, Altair 8800 computer, early MITS documents and unsold model rocket telemetry kits to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.