Birmingham Rocket Boys
The Birmingham Rocket Boys (BRB) is a model rocketry club founded in 2003 by Ronald Witherspoon. It is a chartered section (#665) of the National Association of Rocketry. The club meets monthly at the Southern Museum of Flight, and organizes monthly rocket launches for members, usually at the New Georgia Landfill or at a farm near Childersburg. The club also holds an annual Birmingham Blast Off rocket event. The mission of the club is to promote science and engineering to youth through rocket demonstrations and programs, as well as to provide opportunities for local rocket hobbyists to exhibit and learn.
In 2002 Witherspoon and co-founder Trennon Nickerson were invited by Clayton Sherrod to demonstrate their model rockets for the 2002 Division of Planetary Sciences Convention at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. From that demonstration, the idea of forming a Birmingham rocket club was formed. The club takes it's name from Rocket Boys, the best-selling memoir by former NASA engineer Homer Hickham which was made into the feature film October Sky. Hickham has accepted an honorary membership in the club, and attended the October 14, 2006 launch at the Jones Valley Fun Day Festival at Wiggins Park, which he will cover for an upcoming Parade magazine feature.
References
- Reynolds, Ed (November 16, 2006) "Boys and Their Toys". Black and White.
External links
- Archive of Birmingham Rocket Boys website