Pandemic, recent space travel gains renewing interest in model rockets: local club

Rockets are readied for launch on July 16, 2022, during Edmonton Rocketry Club's Annual Alberta Regional Meet (AARM) 50+2 in Calmar, Alta., a celebration of the club's 50th anniversary in 2020.

A local model rocket club, celebrating more than 50 years of operation this weekend, says its membership only grew over the pandemic as families looked for new activities. 

The Edmonton Rocketry Club on July 16 and 17 is hosting public competitions and displays to celebrate what should have been the 50th anniversary of the Annual Alberta Regional Meet (AARM) in 2020. 

The 2022 event, called AARM 50+2, has drawn model rocketeers from across the province to compete in altitude, duration and other skills events. 

"We tried to have the 50th anniversary, but of course it was COVIDed out," club president Shawn Eyestone explained Saturday. 

"It's actually been really nice to be able to get out and fly." 

Like most other activities, the club was forced online as COVID-19 infections rose and fell in Alberta. 

"We were kind of afraid we were going to lose a lot of our momentum and members, however, during COVID, a lot of families found it as an outing to start with their kids," Eyestone told CTV News Edmonton. 

Additionally, recent progress by international space programs has had a positive effect, he said. 

"Obviously with the space races back in the 60s and 70s, there was a lot of interest around rocketry that kind of died out over many years through the 90s and 2000s when not much was happening. Since the interest of SpaceX and of course Blue Origin and some of the others out there starting to make some headlines these days, it appeals to people."

Saturday and Sunday's competitions are taking place in the field next to the Royal Canadian Legion in Calmar, south of Edmonton. 

Competitors range in age from preteens to seniors, Eyestone said.