Cedar Falls Teens Selected For NASA Rocket Competition

CEDAR FALLS, IA — A team of high school rocket scientists will spend the next several months designing and creating a 20-pound rocket to launch at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., after being invited to a national competition by NASA. The student team was selected after its placement in a previous national competition last spring.

The STARS (Science, Technology And Rocketry Students) group from Cedar Falls High School placed fifth in the April national event and each of the top 24 teams was invited to submit a proposal for the NASA Student Launch, the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier reported. STARS was one of 15 groups accepted from that competition. Overall, 60 middle school and high school teams will be competing in the 18th annual Student Launch April 4-8 in Huntsville.

The competition was created to follow the real-world process of rocket development and engage students in the fields or science, engineering and space exploration, according to NASA. Part of the team's requirement is a community outreach to help inspire other students.

The teams' goal is to launch a rocket that reaches an altitude of one mile while carrying a payload of solar panels and equipment that will record and transmit data on energy storage during the flight.

Students will work with a mentor during the process and they are getting advice from NASA engineer and Cedar Falls alumnus Herb Smith, who is participating in a weekly teleconference with the teen team, the Courier reported.

The project has scheduled phases that mimic NASA's rocketry development: preliminary design review, critical design review, flight readiness review, and launch readiness review. The team will test its full-size rocket at home before transporting it to Marshall Space Flight Center.

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