Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have it in stock?
We often get emails and phone calls asking if we have an item in stock. Our inventory system is tied to the online store so the real-time inventory of the store is always up to date. The Sirius Rocketry Online Store will always show you if an item is out of stock by showing the out of stock icon when you are browsing that item in the store. If the store does not show that the item is out of stock, then you can place the item in your cart with confidence. But if we only have three in stock and you put five in your cart, the cart will ask you to revise your quantity downward until you order the amount that matches what we actually have in stock, so you don't order more than we have. We get lots of emails asking if we have X in stock, so we will refer you to this faq answer to save time - if you can put the amount that you need in your cart, we have them.
Unlike many other internet rocketry dealers, there is no need to ask us if we have something in stock, or order something and wonder whether it will show up soon or if it will be backordered for months. You can only order what we have and is available to ship right away. The only exception to this is specially-priced (and clearly-marked) special order items, which we don't stock, but make available to you to for advance order at additionally discounted special order prices. Special orders are placed with the understanding that we will order the products along with our next vendor dealer order and are subject to the delays a vendor may have in getting the product to us. Special orders are accepted with the understanding that you are willing to wait for us to special order that item for you and the shipping time may be a little longer in exchange for you saving a little money...
In the store, the only shipping option is "Best Way" shipping, what does this mean?
At Sirius Rocketry, we ship to you the most inexpensive yet fastest way possible.
With all the various items like rocket motors that can or cannot go USPS, or ones that have to go FedEx Hazmat, or items that need to be shipped as a Consumer Commodity, or large and extremely lightweight items that have extra dimensional rates attached to them, the amount of possibilities for shipping are endless, and some are quite expensive! The customer often pulls hair out at all the possibilities! With all the options for hazardous items that have to be shipped properly it can be really confusing!
Where most websites leave it to you to figure out what shipping option to use, we take care of that for you. We try to sort all of that out for you by shipping "Best Way" - the fastest, yet most economical way possible within the shipping rates that we charge. We use USPS, FedEx and UPS. Many customers would be surprised to know that a large, but lightweight rocket kit with lots of empty space inside the package that ships in a large but very lightweight box is charged "dimensional rates", which basically means it is charged for the space it takes up rather than weight. Often two-pound packages going by air (Priority Mail and others) cost more than 20 pound packages going by any sort of ground transportation simply because of those dimensional rates. It often is the difference between paying $25.00 to get something in two to three days versus $6.99 to get it in four or five.
"Best Way" is a shipping rate that will allow us to take into account how large the package is, whether or not it is hazardous or ground-restricted, or whether the package would be charged ridiculous rates because of being large, yet very light. You don't have to figure it out, we will figure all of that out for you and we will figure out the fastest way to get it to you without breaking your bank. Otherwise, in many circumstances we would have to call for additional shipping monies, or spend additional time on telephone calls and processing shipping fees manually which, in the long run would add to the cost of every product in the store. Our goal is to ship to the the "fastest, yet most economical way!" We want you to get the package as fast as is possible, and we strive for that. Sirius Rocketry customers are very satisfied with the service that they get and the speed at which we ship, which more than often makes up for an extra day or two spent in the shipping system. We get it into the shipping system much faster than most other rocketry manufacturers which often makes up for the extra day or two spent in the system.
Can you expedite or overnight rocket engines and hazardous materials?
Absolutely NO. All hazardous materials and rocket engines MUST go ground. Overnight and expedited services go via air, which is why hazardous materials cannot go the expedited route.
Some hazardous items can go through Parcel Post (ground service with no additonal fee, these are not marked with HAZ or HAZMAT in the store and the fact they can ship Parcel Post is mentioned in the description), the rest must go FedEx HAZMAT ($35.00 additional HAZMAT fee charged by FedEx, not by us), which is a FedEx Ground service (all these are marked with HAZ or HAZMAT and the HAZMAT fee is automatically applied if these items are added to your cart). FedEx HAZMAT service is only available in the continental 48 states. TIP: the HAZMAT fee is per box, not per motor, so order lots of motors to amortize the HAZMAT cost over a bunch of motors.
Fed Ex is a little faster than Parcel Post, so if you have some rocket engines that can go Parcel Post, but you want them a bit quicker, you can add the FedEx HAZMAT fee and we will ship them FedEx HAZMAT. Nevertheless these services are all ground services, subject to distance, weather and other variables where a delivery date cannot be guaranteed.
Another rocketry vendor has a great answer to this question, and I have to pass it along... The cost to you to overnight or expedite rocket motors is a shipping charge of $25,000.00, which is the very least what a vendor could be fined for improperly shipping rocket motors!
Why do I have to sign up for an account? I should be able to order without an account?
Sirius Rocketry sells many items that require additional information like high-power certifications, telephone numbers that carriers require for hazardous materials delivery, and we also send tracking information on your orders, since you always ask! :-) And you would not believe how many times it has happened where someone enters their own shipping address incorrectly and we need to contact that person somehow to verify! It then leaves us to wonder where we are supposed to ship an item and without a phone number or an email address we cannot call to verify. Creating an account in the online store gives us a small amount of information we would need to contact you if we have any questions or need more info, and is only used for the purposes described clearly on our website. If you are concerned about signing up for an account, please visit our privacy policy page for more information.
When will (insert item here) be back in stock?
This is the second most asked question that we get, and our time answering this question only delays the arrival of the (insert item here - especially when it is an item that Sirius Rocketry specifically makes and is in high demand) item by that much more. Case in point, one week where we answered over 47 enquiries about a particular Sirius product which we were trying to restock, the individual answers to the "when will you have it in stock" inquiries took so much of our production time to answer that we ran out of time to make the product! And that was just the inquiries we received that week for one product! And in the end, those who asked the questions did not even order the products when we had finished them and made them available and had replied to their emails that they were ready. We lost a lot of valuable production time that week.
The answer to the "Will it be back in stock" question, if you wish for it to be back in stock, often is - "Please give us the time to work on getting it back in stock and check back later on the website. When it is available to order, you will be able to put it in your shopping cart!". This requires a bit of checking back work on your part, but is the only way we can have time to work on the product and get it out there as soon as it is available. And it is "first come, first serve" as to availability.
My order's tracking number that you sent me is not showing up on the carrier's website?
We generate your tracking numbers as soon as we get your order ready for shipment and send them to you as soon as we have your shipment ready to go. It can take a day or so though for the tracking numbers to be available in the shipper's online tracking system. Chances are you are clicking on the tracking as soon as you got the email from us, which was soon after we generated the shipping label, but before the package was in the hands of the carrier. Be patient, the tracking information will be available as soon as possible with the carrier, usually the next day!
How do I get started in high power rocketry?
First, you have to join either the National Association of Rocketry, or the Tripoli Rocketry Association. They both have certification programs where you can certify to fly larger motors (higher than G) than are available to the general consumer. More details on the organization's certification programs and high power rocketry can be found here and here, and we recommend you join both organizations, although the certifications from one organization are accepted by the other. High-power rockets must be flown within all applicable laws and Federal Aviation Administration regulations, and the national organizations and their local clubs can help you understand and navigate all the legal framework that is involved with flying high-power model rockets. NAR and Tripoli have local clubs with lots of folks who can help you to get into high power rocketry and give you a place to fly legally. A list of NAR sections is here, and a list of Tripoli prefectures is here. Contact the club nearest you for information on launches, club events and more!
Do you have a printed catalog/Can you send me a catalog?
Back in the day I tried to produce a professional catalog, but with the ever changing combination of products on the site and ever-changing prices and configurations, the catalogs were always obsolete before they ever made it to print. The internet age is such that our webstore now stands as the current catalog. Printing costs have gone sky-high in the "paperless world". We may be able to send some specific manufacturers' information if they have current print catalogs upon special request, but this is becoming rarer and rarer these days and limited to what they send us.
We also suggest that when you sign up for an account in the Sirius Rocketry Online Store that you opt-in for the email newsletter, where we will occasionally send out new product information and other news. You can always change this setting under your account settings if you decide not to receive the newsletter emails. You can also like our Facebook page here where we also post new information and other items of interest, and also cleck out our blog at blog.siriusrocketry.com.
The Sirius Rocketry Webstore is always the latest up to date catalog of what we have to offer, so enjoy the "online catalog!"
