Amateur rocketry is getting a closer look from federal regulators as technological advances boost the most sophisticated amateur rockets higher into the air - and even toward space. It's a sign of how far amateur rocket launches have come. Aerospace more broadly has opened up to private entrepreneurs such as Burt Rutan, whose SpaceShipOne became the first privately manned rocket to reach space in 2004.
A representative from Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, an amateur rocket club, a spaceport development corporation and land owners are hoping to put some space between themselves after a recent launch that had some club members venturing onto private property seeking downed craft. After the launches last weekend, land owners, avid bird watchers and cattle barons are asking the club and the Gulf Coast Regional Spaceport Development Corp. to move their launches further from the refuge and private property. The Houston-based Tripoli Rocketry Association had an amateur rocket launch last weekend for the first time at the open-plained site of the Gulf Coast Regional Spaceport off FM 2004 near Demi-John island.