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cwbullet

cwbullet

Obsessed with Rocketry
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What is your favorite rocketry internet resource that has been lost?
 
I wasn't around for RP or ROL. Whenever I get a new bee in my bonnet I go searching, and it's too bad I'll never get to sift through those.
 
RP was a long time ago and wasn't really maintained very well.

ROL was never able good. I used to call it Rocketry OffLine. I did manage to buy a few things from the sale/trade section.

90s web, not sorely missed.
 
Back in the days of UseNet, I dabbled in many different groups... I may have poked around in one there back in the day (before I lost my job, and my internet connection for about 3 years). Also anything that was on GeoCities (including my site (K'Tesh's Klingon Recipe Pages (back when it was a .com)(now it's klingonfood.org)).
 
Oh yeah, rec.models.rockets on Usenet... Dialup... Those were the days. Dialup was such an improvement because our 3B5 unix machine wasn't on the backbone so we got Usenet tapes every few days.
 
cls said:
RP was a long time ago and wasn't really maintained very well.

ROL was never able good. I used to call it Rocketry OffLine. I did manage to buy a few things from the sale/trade section.

90s web, not sorely missed.
Click to expand...
I think RP was maintained very well until Darrell passed. I pretty much stopped checking this site after joining RP until it finally ended.

Maybe I'm misremembering, though. Time does sometimes have a way of making things seem better than they really were.

Sandy.
 
Sandy H. said:
I think RP was maintained very well until Darrell passed. I pretty much stopped checking this site after joining RP until it finally ended.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what I remember too. Unfortunately I reBARred a little too late after Darrell..
 
Really miss Darrell and what he did for this hobby.

But the resource I am missing most is A Field Guide to American Spacecraft. Just a spectacular site for finding and learning about American Spacecraft, both manned, unmanned, boilerplates, etc.

I posted a thread asking if anyone knew what happened and I have been provided links to a blog (not updated for 11 years) and a Twitter link to the creator of the site. But the twitter link does not allow messages. If any of you have a way to contact the creator I would love to contact him.

Thanks,

Steve
 
I think there was some effort to save RP content after Darrell passed but the hardware it was running on was very old and prone to failures as well as some software issues. The site was highly customized by Darrell. @Steve Shannon would know more as he was a moderator there. I was a mod too but had mostly stopped due to some personal issues before Darrell passed.
 
heada said:
I think there was some effort to save RP content after Darrell passed but the hardware it was running on was very old and prone to failures as well as some software issues. The site was highly customized by Darrell. @Steve Shannon would know more as he was a moderator there. I was a mod too but had mostly stopped due to some personal issues before Darrell passed.
Click to expand...
Earlier this year I finally faced reality and stopped paying for the server for Rocketry Planet. I had to accept that I would never reincarnate it so I let the domain go also. I wrote to a couple people at the time to see if they had any interest but there was none (for the same reason as my disengagement).
I just couldn’t justify spending the money.
A couple people did make backups. I never did.
 
semroc.com (as maintained by Carl McLawhorn). It was a wealth of reference data along with a catalog of the Semroc kits.

(some content is on the internet archive....another reason for a small donation from time to time - at least in my opinion)
 
Steve Shannon said:
Earlier this year I finally faced reality and stopped paying for the server for Rocketry Planet. I had to accept that I would never reincarnate it so I let the domain go also. I wrote to a couple people at the time to see if they had any interest but there was none (for the same reason as my disengagement).
I just couldn’t justify spending the money.
A couple people did make backups. I never did.
Click to expand...

I know there was a lot of stuff behind the scenes related to RP, but I thank any and all associated with running that site when Darrell was around. I absolutely appreciated the resource and have no clue how much was going on that I never heard about, but I know it was a ton of work everyone put in and it showed in the final product.

Sandy.
 
Sandy H. said:
I think RP was maintained very well until Darrell passed.
Click to expand...

I was RMR prior to ROL, then RP. I hated to shy away from RMR, but it was clear that the newsgroup format was on the way out.

I had Darrell's yellow & white "Rocketry Online" logo rocket for awhile. 2" dia or so, I don't even remember what it was now. I gave it to a hometown friend hoping to get him interested, there's no telling what he did with it.
 
Steve Shannon said:
Earlier this year I finally faced reality and stopped paying for the server for Rocketry Planet. I had to accept that I would never reincarnate it so I let the domain go also. I wrote to a couple people at the time to see if they had any interest but there was none (for the same reason as my disengagement).
I just couldn’t justify spending the money.
A couple people did make backups. I never did.
Click to expand...

I would have probably tried to make a static copy online. At this stage, I am not sure how much of it is still relevant.
 
cwbullet said:
What are those?
Click to expand...
RMR = R.M.R = Rec.Models.Rockets in the olden days of the internet, news groups were a way to talk about a subject via email posts. News groups have pretty much stopped being supported by most internet providers but Google Groups took over a large part of it.
 
Last edited:
wreck.models.rockets

"modle rockit mowters is 2 spensiv! i wood liek teh seekrit resippy 2 maek modle rockit mowters!"

And the ever popular "Where's my T-shirt?"

OTOH, Holverson Designs wouldn't have fallen together without it.
 
rmr = rec.models.rockets, a USENET group. On-line discussion, before there were maillists, and *way* before web forums. I first got access when I started working at the univ. in '89. It slowly went away as more web-based alternatives appeared. AOL and the "Me too!"-ers helped its demise. ATT, my internet provider dropped USENET feeds in about 2000. Giganews picked up a lot of the slack at that time, but the "free" bytes-per-day was really limited. Google groups picked up a portion, but it was never really the same. (Mostly) fond memories. Spectacular flame wars! There were discussion groups for about any/every subject, plus the binaries groups where you could download files.
 
Gus said:
But the resource I am missing most is A Field Guide to American Spacecraft. Just a spectacular site for finding and learning about American Spacecraft, both manned, unmanned, boilerplates, etc.

I posted a thread asking if anyone knew what happened and I have been provided links to a blog (not updated for 11 years) and a Twitter link to the creator of the site. But the twitter link does not allow messages. If any of you have a way to contact the creator I would love to contact him.

Thanks,

Steve
Click to expand...
That was(is) an awesome site. The creator was a NASA Educator at Kennedy Space Center, and the contract with the company he worked for was not renewed around 2012, I think, or something like that. Jim Gerard, the creator, was one of the youth group leaders at the church we attended when I was in high school in Florida, and he and I became pretty good friends as a result of my strong interest in all things spaceflight and aviation. He was also the one who encouraged me to get a job at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center in my junior year in high school. I lost touch with him about 15 years ago, but I should try and get in contact with him again. He is a well of information on the history various prototype spacecraft and boilerplates.
 
BEC said:
semroc.com (as maintained by Carl McLawhorn). It was a wealth of reference data along with a catalog of the Semroc kits.

(some content is on the internet archive....another reason for a small donation from time to time - at least in my opinion)
Click to expand...
Yes, Semroc.com is missed to the max.
When I heard Semroc was up for sale, I downloaded or printed everything I could.
I have the spreadsheet with lincs to the various pages. All lincs do nothing now. Very Sad.
I've got a large 3 ring binder of pages from Semroc. I used it a lot when I was scratch building or upscaling.
At least I what I have. I know many didn't save any of the information.
Not sure if I will ever use it again now.
I'm seriously entertaining selling everything I have, and I mean everything.
That is, once I find a place to live and can get internet again. But probably not until Spring at Least.
So please my absents for several months while I recover from my latest lost battle with the land lord.
No even sure if I'll have an address for mail until I check with the Post Office.
But hey, that's life. And life continues to slide down the back side of the hill.
 
Steve Shannon said:
We’ll I’m really sorry I didn’t reach out to you. I thought you and I corresponded about it but it appears I was wrong.
Click to expand...
We did. I never offered, and I wish I had. Knowing what I know now, I could have supported the effort. I always thought that in ways, it was the superior forum. Less traffic, but better information at that time.
 

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