What: Students from nine colleges and universities across the nation will raise thunder across the North Alabama sky April 19, sending aloft rockets of their own making for NASA’s 2007-2008 University Student Launch Initiative. Members of the media are invited to the launch site in Toney, Ala., to meet with student rocketeers and watch the launches. The event is free and open to the public.
Participating student teams have spent the 2007-2008 school year developing, building and testing their own rockets, complete with working science payloads. They’ll strive to fly their rockets to an altitude of 1 mile and retrieve the payloads intact. The annual competition, sponsored by ATK Launch Systems and managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., gives students practical experience — managing complex scientific research and conducting aerospace and engineering projects from drawing board to launch pad.
Who: Nine university rocket teams, including students from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala.; the University of Alabama in Huntsville; Harding University in Searcy, Ark.; Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla; the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks; Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn.; Vanderbilt University in Nashville; Utah State University in Logan; and the College of Menominee Nation in Green Bay, Wis.
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT, Saturday, April 19
Where: Bragg Farms, 1180 Grimwood Road, Toney, Ala.
To attend: Media interested in attending the rocket launch should contact Angela Storey in the Marshall Center’s Public & Employee Communications office at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. Friday, April 18.
