For anyone who grew up in the 60's, watched the space program move from satellites to men on the moon, and built model rockets while dreaming of going into space, this Wired article on homebrew rockts and the rocket geek who build them is a must read.

My kids do model rockets and have varying levels of interest, but it isn't anything like what my friends and I had. We lived for the next mission and news of every flight. Launching model rockets was, for us, a way of participating in that grand endeavor, even on a small, small scale. I'm happy to see that serious amateurs are building amazing rockets and it's not all left to NASA's pathetic shuttle program.