Once a year, the premiere event in high-power rocketry gathers the most fearless and hardcore of all amateur rocket builders from every corner of the country. Here, they launch the biggest, the baddest and most cutting-edge and innovate homemade and hand-designed rockets in the galaxy. From lifelong scientists to guys who just love to see things explode, and from rocketry groupies who live for the thrill of the launch to dedicated thrill-junkies who wait for this event all year long, this group is unlike any you’ve ever seen. The event is simply known as Large Dangerous Rocket Ships, and that’s just what it is.
For five days crowds of rocket enthusiasts gather at L.D.R.S. in Lucerne Valley, California to watch hundreds of “flyers” launch more than 2,000 rockets into the sky. There are wild drag races where countless rockets all speed into the sky at once. There’s a race to 6,000 feet and even a low altitude contest that opens up the competition to unconventional rockets of all shapes and sizes (think flying port-a-potties and washer/dryers). But all that’s really just child’s play compared to the main event that this year, for the first time in L.D.R.S. history, will change the game forever–the race to the 100,000 ft mark. In this event the rebels of rocketry–the extreme experimental rocket-builders–launch their unpredictable, entirely homemade rockets to see whose can go the highest. And this just might be the year when the record is broken. And our host, Kari Byron is giving you a front row seat to it all.
