BY ROD HANSEN
Some high school-age students on the Weare Rocketry Team recently made history as student space scientists.
A rocket team from the middle school, meanwhile, hopes to repeat the success of their older counterparts from a year earlier.
Members of the Student Launch Initiative team, composed mainly of John Stark Regional High School students, recently tested a rocket of their own making in Huntsville, Ala., near the site where NASA scientists created the rocket that launched the first people to the moon.
Six members of that team participated in Weare Middle School’s Team America Rocketry Challenge last year. That group qualified to submit a proposal to NASA after making the top 25 in a national competition last May.
Success at last year’s Team America Rocketry Challenge only spurred the team on to further achievement.
The day after the team returned from the national competition in Virginia last year, team member Tyler Becker, now a freshman at John Stark and team leader of their project, e-mailed NASA to find out how to submit a proposal for the Student Launch Initiative.
After submitting an 85-page typed report to NASA, members of the team were notified they had received the contract in September of last year.
A grueling design review process followed, and the team traveled to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., on April 28 to test their final project.
Theirs was one of 12 proposals accepted nationwide, and the first-ever group of New Hampshire students to launch at a NASA facility.
Their mission challenged them to design, build and test a rocket, prepare a scientific payload to ride on board, design and post a Web site showcasing their work, and finally to present formal project reviews to a team of NASA engineers.
The major project regulation required the team’s rocket fly at least 1 mile during the demonstration.
Weare’s vehicle did not meet that benchmark, instead flying 4,993 feet in 14.3 seconds, said team adviser and Weare Middle School science teacher Mark Kibler.
Missing the time requirement did not constitute a loss for the team, Kibler said.
“There is no competitive element to the Student Launch Initiative. Rather, they ask if you were to do Phase Two of the project, what would you do differently,” Kibler said.
The team has qualified to resubmit for Phase Two of the project next year, Kibler said.
The Student Launch Initiative is part of NASA’s efforts to support science education among the nation’s youth, said one organization spokesperson.
“This is one of many NASA education projects that encourages young people to test their math and science skills in practical, real-world situations. We hope the model rocket builders of today become the scientists, engineers, astronauts or educators of tomorrow,” Tammy Rowan, interim manager of Marshall Center’s Academic Affairs Office, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the middle school rocketry team Pink! was one of 100 teams to qualify for the Team America Rocketry Challenge national competition on May 19 in Virginia.
The team reached the national event after passing the qualifying round in Amesbury, Mass., in March.
The middle school rocketry team has decided to launch with a cause this year, Kibler said. Eighth-grade students raised and donated more than $1,000 for the *** cancer society this year, and the rocketry team has said it will also raise money and awareness for the cause on a national level.
However, fundraising efforts are still required to sent the whole team to the national competition, Kibler said.
Fundraising events include a pasta dinner, scheduled for Saturday, May 12, at Center Woods Elementary School. The event is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m., with a requested donation of $5 per person or $15 per family.