How it started, a 3-stage 38mm attempt in 2009

How it's going (still trying, 2022)

Still trying, 2023. (2024 is going to be amazing!)

Featherweight Altimeters LLC is a small business dedicated to providing the world's best electronics designed for amateur rocketry.

Adrian Adamson founded Featherweight Altimeters, and currently runs it full-time, using skills and knowledge gained from an impressive career on NASA programs.  He has worked on the Mars Exploration Rovers, 2 different Lunar lander start-up companies, and several roles on NASA's Orion spacecraft, including  allocating all of the thousands of electrical interfaces on the vehicle 2008-2012, and designing the electrical modifications to commercial cameras that provided all of the in-flight imagery from the successful Artemis mission.  He also designed the data return capsules for NASA's LOFTID program, using the same LoRa technology and over-the-horizon lost rocket capability he developed for Featherweight GPS trackers.  Adrian is a mechanical engineer by education, but started playing with accelerometers in the winter of 2006 to teach himself about electronic design.  By the summer of 2007, he created the Parrot altimeter to collect lots of interesting data from little rockets.  The Raven altimeter was released in late 2009 and since then over 4000 have been sold.  The Featherweight GPS tracker was released in 2018, raising the bar with its LoRa long-range radio, small size and custom phone app.  Over 3000 trackers and ground stations have been sold.  In the meantime, Adrian has exceeded Tripoli altitude records in F, G, I, and J single-motor classes, and set official Tripoli altitude records for F impulse (10,136 feet) H impulse (14,818 feet). and L impulse (32,032 feet).  He continues to push the envelope with high-performance multi-stage rockets, including the 38mm L class flight pictured at left, from BALLS 2009 and trying again at BALLS 2022 and 2023.  His interest in high performance rocketry has been a key motivator that has driven the Featherweight altimeter designs to be smaller, more accurate, provide more data, and be compatible with smaller batteries.

Adrian's wife Karen Strong, a lifelong space industry fan and TRA-certified L1, programs and tests trackers and ground stations, organizes production, fulfills orders, and provides customer service.

Earth, the Moon, and the Orion spacecraft, taken by a commercial camera Adrian Adamson helped modify for space