NASA Rocketry Challenge Engages and Educates as Student Teams to Build and Fly Rockets

According to NASA organizers, some 57 student teams will be taking part in the NASA Student Launch Rocket Challenge. The Rocketry Challenge, which takes place in April, is an opportunity for students to compete and learn about rocket science working directly with actual rocket scientists and is part of NASA’s initiative to encourage young people to pursue careers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The student teams selected by NASA represent schools from 26 states in the U.S. To successfully compete in the program, the teams have to design and build a “large, high-powered rocket, complete with a working science or engineering payload and capable of flying to the target altitude of 1 mile.”

“Every year, the NASA Student Launch Projects build on our students’ classroom studies in an energizing, exciting way,” said Tammy Rowan, manager of the Academic Affairs Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., which organizes the event. “It’s great fun, but it also reflects the real-world complexity of planning missions, building flight hardware and completing tough pre-flight checks and reviews. It tests their problem-solving skills and gives them practical, hands-on experience. We hope the experience is so unforgettable it leads many of them to become the nation’s next generation of scientists, engineers and space explorers.”

In addition to the construction of the rockets and integration of the onboard engineering or science payloads, the teams also must maintain detailed preliminary and post-launch reports, and build and regularly update a public website to document their rocket-building experience. To help spread the educational excitement within the program, the teams are also required to develop an educational engagement program to inspire and educate other students.

More information about this program and other educational programs from NASA can be found online at http://education.msfc.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/education.