Membership Fees

Individual - $10
Family - $20

Join our club!

Non-members may launch for free at two of our launches. After that, a limited membership costing $5 will be required.

About Us

We have been in existence since 2000. From 2000 to 2007 we were the Fermilab Association of Rocketry. In 2008 we changed our name to Prairie State Rocketry. Our current launch site is a farm in Dekalb, IL.

Upcoming Launch

February 15th
10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Waterman, Illinois

Map to the site     Local weather --->

Weather permitting, our launches are the second Saturday of each month.

First launch of 2019

Our first launch is currently scheduled for March 9th from 10:00 am till 3:00 pm. It will be out in DeKalb, IL, at the Walter Farm. You can find the clubs complete launch schedule on the website on the Launches page.

Published: January 17, 2019 | Comments: 0

The Launch Report: October 8, 2016

We had a very good launch on October 8th, the weather was very nice, we had sunny skies with minimal cloud cover, the winds were in the 10 mph range with temperatures in the 60’s. We had a nice turn out, we had 15 Hi-Power launches with the largest being by Jerry Vida an Aerotech K535 motor. We also had two Level 2 certifications one was by Bill Stearns using a Madcow Rocketry Sensor with a Aerotech J270 motor. Bill’s flight was a perfect flight to about 1800′ and rocket was recovered undamaged. The other Level 2 flight was by Dennis McAuliff he used a Loc Precision Warlock with an Aerotech J425 motor. It was another perfect flight to about 2300′ and the rocket was recovered undamaged. We also launched the old club project rocket which was built in the early 2000’s and last flew in 2004. It was a DG&A Armageddon it was flown by Bob Jablonski on a J425 to about 1600′ it still flew great after all these years.

All the flights for the day flew excellent, you can check out the launch logs for more details on who flew what.

We also had a cookout at the launch with Bill Stearns and Tracy Ramsey handling all the details, so thank you to both of them for the extra work they put into making it a success. I also want to thank our on site vendor Bob Jablonski from County Line Hobbies for coming out to the launch with all of his rocket merchandise.

Thanks to everyone who made it out to the launch, I think everyone at the launch had a good time. Our next launch is scheduled for Saturday November 12th in DeKalb, I hope many of you are able to attend. We also have a meeting coming up on Saturday November 5th. It will be from 1:00 – 4:30 in meeting room “C” at the 95th Street Library, Naperville.

If the weather does not cooperate and we are unable to launch in November I want to thank everyone who attended our launches this year, I think we had a very good year overall and a lot of that has to do with all of the people who attended our launches.

Dennis McAuliff -President

Published: October 14, 2016 | Comments: 0

The Launch Report : March 22, 2014

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We had our first launch of the year on March 22nd. The tempature was in the mid to upper 30’s. At the start of the launch, the winds were coming out of the west at 10 to 15 mph and it was cloudy.

Considering the weather conditions we had a nice turn out, but we only had a handful of launches. The reason for that was even though our launch area was in decent shape, when you went further out in the field to recover your rocket it was extremely muddy and very difficult to walk.

The launch was attended by Justin Farrand, Tom, Chelsea, and Jared Maulsby, John Yuill, Bill Stearns, Gary Kawabata, and Dennis McAuliff. As for the launch numbers, we had a total of 5 launches for a total of 543 Newtons. Justin Farrand launched the largest rocket with a Cesaroni I-365 motor. While Tom Maulsby had the longest walk through the muddy field to recover his Areotech Strong Arm which he launched on a G76-7 motor. With just a handful of flights, all the flights were good and all the rockets were recovered. Please go and check out the launch logs to see who flew what. We also have a few photos from the launch in the photo gallery.

Even though we only had a handful of launches, it was still a good day to get out there after this long winter and see a few rockets get up in the air and talk about rockets.

Our next club launch will be on April 12th from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm. Hopefully the field conditions will improve and we can have some nice weather and a lot of you are able to attend. Also coming up April 4 – 6 is Thunderstruck in Ash Grove, IN. Here is the website with details: Thunderstruck 5. Many of our club members will be attending and flying, so if you get a chance try to make it there.

Dennis McAuliff – President

Published: March 27, 2014 | Comments: 0

The Launch Report : October 27, 2012

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For the club launch we had on October 27th, we had a sunny day with winds around 10 mph for most of the day and the temperature was in the 50’s.

We had a nice turn out for the day. We had 46 launches for a total of 2036 Newtons. We had 11 different people launching rockets for the day. The most prolific rocketeers for the day were Bill Wojtyla and John Yuill with 7 launches each and Paul Parkes with 541 Newtons.

We also finally got our Glider contest in and the winner was Chris Cantine. He ended up winning a $20 gift card to Hobby Lobby. We had a lot of great flights for the day. To see what was launched, please go and check out the launch logs. We also had some pictures taken, so go and check them out in the photo gallery.

Our next club launch is scheduled for November 10th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. This will probably be one of our last launches of the year, so hopefully everyone will make it out. Our first club meeting is also coming up on November 17th. We should have a lot of fun things going on at our meetings this year, so come and join us at the Naperville Library located just east of Route 59 on 95th street.

Dennis McAuliff – President

Published: October 28, 2012 | Comments: 0

The Launch Report : August 2012

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We ended up having 2 launches in August. We had one launch on August 11th and another launch on August 25th. The weather for both launches was very good, The temperatures were in upper 80’s to low 90’s and the winds for both launches were around 10 mph.

We had good turn outs for both launches. We had 14 different people launch rockets on August 11th and we had 17 different people launch rockets on August 25th. We had a total of 121 launches for August with a total of 5927.5 Newtons. For the August 11th launch, the most prolific rocketeers were John Yuill with 9 launches and John Olevich with 763 Newtons. On the August 25th launch, the most prolific rocketeers were Michael Seibert with 10 launches and Gary Kawabata with 774 Newtons (1 rocket).

We had 2 new members join the club. They were Paul Glonek and Kevin Kunstman. We had our members only contest on August 11th for the month, it was scratch built rockets and the winner of the contest was Chris Cantine. He won a $20 gift card to Hobby Lobby. We also had our monthly club raffle and we raised another $86, thanks to everyone who participated. The winner of the raffle was Bill Stearns. He won 2 rocket kits – one was a PML “Black Brant VB” and the other was a Fliskits “Saturn 1B”.

Also, for the first time, we had a vendor out at both launches – Bill from Balsa Machining Services. It was very nice to have him out there with many of his items available. He is planning to come out to more of our launches in the future.

There were a lot of great flights for both launches from many people, so please check out the launch logs for who launched what. There were also some pictures taken, so please go and check them out in the photo gallery.

Our next club launch is scheduled for September 8th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, hopefully the good weather will continue and we have a lot of people come out and enjoy the launch. Thanks to everyone who made it out to our launches in August.

Dennis McAuliff – President

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Published: August 26, 2012 | Comments: 0