Gearing Up For World's Largest Rocket Contest
Arlington VA (SPX) Feb 13, 2008 Students around the country are testing altimeters and trimming tail fins in anticipation of qualifying for the final round of the Sixth Annual Team America Rocketry Challenge in May. A total of 643 middle and high school teams from 43 states and the District of Columbia have registered for the world's largest rocket contest and are designing and building their vehicles by hand. The contest, aimed at increasing interest in math and science and promoting aerospace careers among young people, will involve approximately 7,000 students from start to finish. The 3- to 15-member teams registered for the contest in November and have until April 7 to successfully launch their model rockets and achieve a score qualifying them for the final competition. This year's challenge is to build and fly a model rocket that reaches 750 feet while remaining aloft for 45 seconds, returning the payload of two raw eggs to the ground unbroken. The students are vying for a total of $60,000 in scholarships and prizes. Lockheed Martin provides $5,000 scholarships to each of the top three teams, and Raytheon sponsors the winning team's trip to the Farnborough International Airshow in July. NASA invites some the top teams to participate in their Student Launch Initiative, an advanced rocketry program. The top 100 teams will convene Saturday, May 17, for the national finals at the Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia. The public is invited to watch the competition. Related Links Team America Rocketry Challenge Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com
Propulsion Technology Mostly Unchanged After 50 Years Huntsville AL (SPX) Feb 12, 2008 Although it's been a half century since America entered the space age, the basic propulsion concepts used to push Explorer I into space will be the same type of propulsion that the nation will use to begin the next half century of space exploration. It was January 31, 1958 when a Redstone-Jupiter C rocket developed in Huntsville, Ala., lifted the 30-pound artificial satellite into space. |
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