Model Forum / General / Rockets / June 2007

For Immediate Release:

Keynote Speaker Announced for LDRS 26 Banquet
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Every year, the banquet at LDRS is the highlight of the event, and
this
year's banquet is shaping up to be much better than most.  In addition
to great food served in the company of a room full of rocketry
enthusiasts at the incomparable Primm Valley Resort, there are also a
number of additional attractions:

First, we've lined up two outstanding guest speakers for the banquet.

Our keynote speaker is Rex Ridenoure, who is the President, CEO, and
co-founder of Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation, which provides systems
for accessing and experiencing space and other extreme environments.
Ecliptic produces the world's leading brand of on board video and
imaging systems for use with rockets, spacecraft and other remote
platforms: RocketCam(TM).  They also provide one of the most
cost-effective systems for getting small payloads into space:
RocketPod(TM).  (http://www.eclipticenterprises.com).

Rex has had a distinguished career as a space-mission engineer and
system architect on more than a dozen space missions, and is a
champion
of and leader in the emerging market sector of commercial deep-space
missions.  Before Ecliptic, Rex was Chief Mission Architect at
BlastOff!
Corporation working on commercial lunar missions and, before that,
Chief
Mission Architect at SpaceDev, a commercial space-exploration and
development company.  Before SpaceDev, he was manager of the Space
Systems Division at Microcosm, Inc., a small space-mission engineering
firm.

Rex will be showing some amazing on board rocket videos from
Ecliptic's
work with various commercial and NASA space launch vehicles.  This is
one show that you definitely don't want to miss!

(And, with professional audio and video facilities for the banquet
provided by Van Norman Audio Visual, you won't miss a thing -- you'll
feel like you're actually there.)

Our other guest speaker is Pat Gordzelik, who is the Vice President of
the Tripoli Rocketry Association.

Pat is an entrepreneur, owning and operating a fastening systems
company
that he founded in 1982, and sharing responsibility for a
pharmaceutical
consulting business that he and his wife, Lauretta, co-own.

An avid rocketeer for many years, Pat joined Tripoli in 1998, and
helped
found the Tripoli Amarillo prefecture in 1999.  In 2001, he achieved
his
Level 3 certification, and was nominated and approved as a TRA TAP
member.  Under Pat's influence, Tripoli Amarillo successfully bid for
and hosted LDRS 21 in July 2002, and he did it all again for LDRS 25,
in
July 2006.

Pat is well known to the Tripoli Research rocketry community as the
inventor of the "Amarillo Blue" and "Polish Rojo" propellant formulas,
and he has helped countless other amateur rocketeers over the years to
succeed in their own propellant chemistry endeavors.

Gordzelik also served as safety consultant for the SciFi channel show
"Master Blasters".  In his virtually nonexistent spare time, Pat
advises
the Center for Engineering Outreach at Texas Tech University on its
K-12
rocketry content, and he also teaches an Advanced Rocketry workshop.

Anyone who knows Pat Gordzelik knows that he's always a great source
for
interesting rocketry stories, and he's agreed to share a few with us
all
at the LDRS 26 banquet.

Additionally, everyone who attends the LDRS 26 banquet will be given
one
free entry ticket (and may purchase more) for a special raffle.   This
raffle will be held at the banquet, with quite a few great prizes
donated by the LDRS 26 vendors.

You won't want to miss this chance!  The prize pool promises to be
fantastic, and -- with entries limited to just the banquet attendees
--
your chances of winning something great should be pretty good!

The Tripoli Board of Directors will hold their annual public meeting
at
the LDRS 26 banquet, and the TRA President, Ken Good, will give his
annual "State of the Organization" address to those in attendance.
This
meeting is your chance to have your comments and concerns addressed by
the Tripoli BOD in a public forum.

Announcements scheduled to be made at the banquet include the results
of
this year's Tripoli Board elections, and the identity of the host
prefecture and location for next year's LDRS 27.

The excitement doesn't end there -- the LDRS 26 Banquet will also see
the Las Vegas debut appearance of the (in)famous "Mark and Robin
Show".

Don't miss it!

Banquet tickets must be purchased in advance.  At only $35/per person,
they represent an excellent value, and sales have been brisk so far.
Don't let them sell out before you buy yours!

Please see the LDRS 26 web site, at http://www.ldrs26.org, to purchase
your tickets for the LDRS 26 Banquet, and to register for LDRS 26.

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