114: Jenna Kay Foertsch on this year's HotNozzleSummer event

chapAppDescWelcome to Episode 114 of The Rocketry Show! In this Episode, we'll be talking about The Hot Nozzle Summer 2021 event! Jenna Kay Foertsch joins us from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she works, to talk about it! On July 23rd of this year at the FAR launch site in the desert of California, Tim Dodd, AKA The everyday Astronaut, stomped his foot down on an air powered rocket to kick off an event that has taken the rocketry community by viral storm.   Photo: Tim Dodd kicking off the event Credit: Matt of HNS The event known as "Hot Nozzle Summer" started out as a joke on Twitter by a number of young rocketry enthusiasts earlier in the Spring, but very quickly grew into a movement spearheaded by an energetic group resulting in a major launch that took place over the weekend of July 23-26.  The goals of this group are stated on their website… "Hot Nozzle Summer is a movement within the amateur rocket community that seeks to break down the barriers that exist within the hobby and make it more accessible to new people, regardless of skill or training in rocketry or engineering. This movement celebrates all aspects of rocketry whether its getting a Level 1 high powered certification through NAR or Tripoli, or just shooting model rockets in the backyard with your kids this summer. You do not have to come to the live event to participate in the movement." Primarily a social media phenomenon, the group’s dedicated leaders pulled off an event that saw many rockets fly many of which were from people new to the hobby, or flying to achieve a higher certification level.  Jenna Kay, one of the main organizers of the event joins The Rocketry Show to discuss how the event came to be, what challenges were overcome to pull it off, and what the future might hold for what has essentially become a movement to bring people into the hobby that has not been seen before.