Amateur & Student Rocket Builders Can Participate in NASA Challenge Event

In just over a week, on Saturday May 17, a number of college and university student teams launch amateur rockets, of their own design, on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. Soaring to altitudes of as much as 20,000 feet, many of the student-built rockets will even carry onboard science and engineering experiments.

The amateur rocket competition is known as “launchfest” and is the pinnacle of the 2013-2014 NASA Student Launch competition. The event will stream live via online video and television from NASA TV, as it take place from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. MDT at the Salt Flats in Tooele County, Utah.


In addition to the live video stream, those interests in the event can also follow via the NASA Launchfest Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/NASA_Launchfest).

Later that evening, the event will be capped off with an awards banquet, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Salt Lake City Community College’s Miller Campus in Sandy, Utah.

Prior to the rocket launch competition, NASA will host a Rocket Fair on May 15 where students will make pre-launch technical presentations to NASA and ATK Aerospace Group (an event sponsor) engineers.

Additionally, the rocket fair, which will take place at Cyprus High School in Magna, Utah from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. MDT, will give the students in the competition an opportunity to show off their flight vehicles to the public.

More information about the student rocketry event can be found online at: http://www.nasa.gov/education/studentlaunch.