Qualification flight observers are adult members of the NAR who watch a team's official "qualification flight" attempt at a mutually convenient time and place sometime before 2 April 2018. The observer verifies that the flight is conducted within event rules and that the egg payload is uncracked after flight, serves as one of the two stopwatch-equipped timers for the flight, and then records the flight duration and altimeter-reported altitude post-flight. He or she signs the official flight-report form, which is then sent in to the AIA. Qualification flight observers are under no obligation to also serve as a mentor to a team, although they may do so. Observers must be impartial; they cannot be related to any member of the team they observe, be employed by the team's school, or be a member of the team's sponsoring non-profit organization. Impartial adults may join the NAR (online if desired) simply for the purpose of being an observer, if a team is not otherwise able to locate an NAR adult member.

NAR Sections help by listing all of their launches on the NAR  "Launch Windows"  web page and by providing free access to these launches and use of Section or personal launch equipment for any TARC team that needs to do a test or qualification flight. 

NAR Scholarship Program, Robert L. Cannon Award, and Extracurricular Activity Grant Awards

Lockheed Martin has launched the second cycle of its 'Girls' Rocketry Challenge' program, a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative designed to enable female high school students in Japan engage in real-life experiments that will further pique their curiosity and potential interest in STEM and related  careers.

In partnership with the Japan Association of Rocketry (JAR), a non-profit organisation setting the industry standard for model rocketry in Japan, the  Girls' Rocketry Challenge seeks to reinforce the basics of physics, mathematics, and other disciplines in a fun and collaborative manner using model rockets. The first cycle saw three schools from the Kanto region of Japan participate in the challenge and enter the national competition of model rocketry at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Space Center in Tsukuba.

The second cycle of the program will enable 15 girls from three schools, all from outside of the Greater Tokyo Area, to obtain their class-4 rocketry licenses, practice model rocketry skills, and present their progress at Science Castle, a schools' science fair, in December 2017. Participants will then join the national competition of model rocketry in May 2018.

On October 15, all three teams and their teachers joined Chuck Jones, Lockheed Martin Japan's Chief Executive, and Makoto Yamada, JAR's President, for an introduction to the program and to each other. On the same day, they attained their class-4 rocketry licenses through their first lecture on model rocketry, a hands-on model rocket development session, and finally, the first test launch of their original model rockets.

Advancing STEM education is a critical focus for Lockheed Martin and a challenge that it shares with the Japanese industry. Lockheed Martin hopes continuing this program will enable girls to experience STEM activities first-hand and it will open new doors for the next generation of female innovators, explorers, and inventors.