The Elena Christian Junior High School Rocketry Club made it to the Team America Rocket Challenge finals and is going to Virginia for the May 15 finals. Elena Christian is the first school outside of the continental United States to enter this prestigious contest, much less make it to the finals.
Science teacher Steve Bullock started the rocketry club a little over a year ago, and his entire 4th period science class participated. About half — a core group of seven students — are bona fide members of the club and six of them are hoping to make it to the May 15 finals in Great Meadows; a park in the Virginia hills outside of Washington, D.C.
"They have done really well to master the science of rocketry and also to get this far," Bullock said Friday. "Since last year, we have made about 14 rocket launches with more than half of these flights attaining heights of over 700 feet. One launch last week went to over 1000 feet."
Team America Rocketry Challenge is held each year in May and requires students to build a model rocket from scratch — it cannot be a model bought from a hobby shop — and design it to fly up to 825 feet high with a raw Grade A hen’s egg as the payload. The egg must be returned to earth unbroken and the rocket must remain in the air for 40 to 45 seconds. Points are deducted for any flight between 35 and 40 seconds and over 45 seconds.
"So far, our students have made several flights with the rockets staying up in the air for periods ranging between 30 and 53 seconds and returning the egg unbroken," Bullock said.
Friday morning, several hours before learning they had made the finals, the team headed out for a test launch at a soccer field around the corner from the school. Each member has a role, Bullock said. Dequan Prentice is team captain.
"This guy is really able to run the show," he said of Prentice, as the team unloaded their materials and prepared for launch. "He has the understanding of all the science for the design, building and launching of the rocket. In Virginia, he is sure to be our point person, making sure we have our resources for setting up the rocket and complying with regulations."
Kaila Mitchell is safety person; Silkia Carmona is responsible for documentation, photos and media; Aaleyah Joseph, Kayhania Gumbs and Gevron Labeau are tasked with locating and recovering the rocket after its flight; and McClent Langellier does launch assistance and helps with recovery, Bullock said. All roles are critical because once in Virginia, the rocket launches must be student-led with the teacher remaining in the background and just offering advice.
Langellier and Prentice laid out the ignition wire and hammered a launching wire into the ground. The roughly two-foot rocket, made of cardboard tubing, plastic and balsa wood fins, rides up the three-foot wire upon launch, directing its initial flight. There is a stiff breeze and they point the wire slightly into the wind.
"The physics of the rocket make it fly into the direction the wind is coming from," Bullock said.
Because it was a bit tight, before placing the brown, cardboard encased rocket engine into the rocket, they shaved off a little cardboard and slightly widened the cavity within their rocket. then they put together the nose cone, with a payload of an egg and a small, cigarette-sized altimeter.
"We put the altimeter close to the egg," Prentice said, explaining there were air holes on that part of the rocket to allow the change in air pressure from altitude to reach the device.
Below the payload, they place a wad of insulating paper, then a passel of purple metallic plastic streamers with lots of folds and creases. In the past they let you use a parachute, but for the first time this year, you have to use streamers to slow the rocket’s descent, making it more difficult to get the egg home safely, Bullock said. All the folds and creases create drag as the rocket and streamers plummet through the air.
Goats meandered about the field, more curious about raw greens than rockets, as the team slid the rocket down onto the launch wire, attached the ignition wire to the rocket engine and at the other end, to a switch attached to a car-starting battery.
After a traditional final countdown from ten and a flick of the ignition switch: swoosh! There was a burst of smoke and flame and in an instant, the rocket was hundreds of feet in the air, barely visible. Then poof — it burst open and the purple streamers fluttered in the sun as the red and blue rocket fell to earth.
Upon recovery, they examined their rocket. A fin was broken. The egg was slightly cracked, but not broken. A press of a button and the altimeter gave off seven beeps, then five, then two: The rocket flew 752 feet.
"If we had calmer winds, that could easily have been 825," Bullock said. "NASA would have scrubbed a launch with winds like today."
Now that the Elena Christian team has made it to the finals, they will be building two more rockets, one as a backup. The next challenge is getting to Virginia.
"We will need help to get there," Bullock said. "We have committed for three plane tickets but we will need help for the other four students, for hotels, eating and ground transportation. So now we will do fundraisers. For starters we are going to have a pizza sale at the school."
Of 669 teams who registered this year for the Rocket Challenge, 330 submitted qualifying results, from which the top 100 go to the finals. The goal is not to fly the farthest but to have the most control, with a rocket that carries one raw egg to an altitude as close to 825 feet as possible and stays airborne for between 40 and 45 seconds. On the morning of May 15, all 100 finalists will set off one rocket and the top 10 will set off a second rocket for the grand prize. The top ten share $60,000 in prize money. The grand prize winning team gets $25,000.
NASA invites top teams to participate in their Student Launch Initiative, an advanced rocketry program. Companies such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have sponsored additional prizes such as scholarship money and a trip to an international air show in Paris.
