One of the questions both members new to Tripoli Rocketry Association as well as long-time members ask is “Where do I go to find out what is and isn’t allowed at a Tripoli launch?” For a Commercial Motor launch, the answer was three documents, the High Power Safety Code and the Safe Launch Practices document, which are available on the Tripoli website, as well as NFPA 1127, which was only available on the NFPA’s website (we were not allowed to publish NFPA 1127 as the NFPA copyrights it, and they would prefer to sell you a copy to fund their operations even though it was rocketry folks that helped them write it!). If you were attending a Research Motor launch, in addition to the three documents above, you had to include the Research Safety Code from Tripoli’s website.
It always frustrated me that there was one single document that a flyer could reference to understand our safety code. To this end, the Tripoli Board of Directors is pleased to announce the publication and adoption of our new Tripoli Rocketry Association Safety Code which is available on the Tripoli website. This safety code will become effective on May 1, 2022.
Under this safety code, there are no longer Commercial launches or Research launches, just Tripoli launches. There are some changes to the current safety code, such as a common safe distance table, a safety code for both model rockets as well as radio-controlled boosted gliders as well as other changes. Please take the time to read this document in its entirety. While your first reaction will probably be there seem to be a lot more rules under this new document, in fact, almost nothing more restrictive has been adopted it’s just compiled into one document now.
Finally, as an organization, we owe a huge thank you to Steve Shannon, who undertook the daunting task of compiling the information from the original four documents and writing (in plain English, not legalese) a document we can all understand and follow.
View the New Unified Safety Code