2022 Spaceport America Cup Lessons Learned

From the ESRA President's Desk:

This year's competition was filled with many firsts and challenges we've never faced before as an organization.  We had more teams than ever in the history of IREC.  We had our first significant weather delay losing over a full day in getting rockets into the air.  We faced logistical challenges that meant, to preserve the integrity of the competition, a delay in announcing the final awards winners until all data was collected and verified.  All in all, while it was a challenging event for the teams and for ESRA, I'm proud at what we've all accomplished together.  We're already taking these lessons to heart for 2023 and looking forward to an even stronger competition!

On an additional note, several hybrid teams were faced with last minute insurance issues.  I want to personally assure you that ESRA is very committed to fostering and supporting all hybrid teams to the best of our ability.  We are taking steps to resolve this issue going forward.  There have been some rumors that our friends at the Tripoli Rocketry Association (TRA) were a cause for the delays.  That information is absolutely incorrect, in fact if it had not been for the support of TRA (and many ESRA volunteers are members of TRA already) and their expertise in the field of amateur high power rocketry, we simply could not safely conduct the competition. 

A huge thank you goes out TRA and also to the National Association of Rocketry (NAR) for their strong support and guidance to ESRA for Spaceport America Cup.  We couldn't do it without you.

Go nominal!
Cliff Olmsted