Now that everyone is bouncing off the walls over the Discovery Channel show, a few thoughts:
It might be ultimately be a disservice that the show featured LDRS. This does not represent a "typical" HPR launch. LDRS is the hard-core rocketeers, the fanatics, the true believers. A more typical launch would have a 5000 ft. to 10000 ft. waiver, and when you tally up the flight cards at the end of the day, most flights will be found to be on F, G, & H motors. This is certainly true for the HPR launches I attend in WI. Maybe showing that mid-power is big enough to be interesting, or that even adults can have fun with modrocs would have been better.
How many potential new recruits brought in by the show will remain so enthusiastic when they find out how much an M reload costs, or about the need for an LEUP, and find out about the pending NPRM, the lawsuit with no end in sight, or the totally failed attempt at legislative relief? The in-fighting that goes on? How many will pursue hybrids, because of the greater initial investment? Or, as many seem to forget, unless you can find a reliable non-BP ejection system, the LEUP issue is still there.
I hate to be cynical, but after this all fades away we will end up in exactly in the same place we are at now. Maybe some more involved with mid-power. I have become a realist, I think regulation will be with us permanently, and I am not looking to the sky for some type of divine intervention.
I hope there can be a reasonable discussion of this, rather than a "burn the heretic" witch hunt like happened in another thread when someone suggested there were shortcomings in the range safety practices at LDRS.
I know what Jerry will say - "Are you insane? This is r.m.r."