Student-built experiments are slated to launch May 1 from New Mexico’s Spaceport America on an UP Aerospace SL-4 sounding rocket emblazoned with a pink breast-cancer-awareness ribbon. The New Mexico Space Grant Consortium is sponsoring the launch, which is being dedicated to a Farmington, N.M., science teacher who died of breast cancer in 2005.

New Mexico Space Grant Consortium Director Patricia Hynes said that in addition to the painting of a pink ribbon on the outside of the SL-4 rocket, many of the launch participants will wear pink shirts that read, “Rocket Scientists are Tough Enough to Wear Pink.”