NASA Launches a Student-Made Sounding Rocket From Wallops Flight Facility

NASA launched a student-made rocket at 5 p.m. on August 19. Students from various university and community college teams from six states and one U.S. territory collaborated on the launch for years. This is the summer's second student launch.

The Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket, which stands 44 feet tall, took off from NASA's Wallops Space Facility. The launch could be seen from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Maryland, and southern Delaware. For flight viewing, the NASA Visitor Center grounds at Wallops were closed to the public.

Inside the rocket, students loaded a payload with a combination of technology and scientific experiments. WKTR said that the cargo is scheduled to drop into the Atlantic Ocean after the rocket reaches around 91 miles.

University Students Prepare to ‘Rocket’ Experiments Into Space from NASA Wallops

(Photo: NASA/Keith Koehler)
Abby Shefer, RockSat-X program manager with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium, and Benjamin Campbell, a student at Northwest Nazarene University, discuss payload sequence test procedures.

WAVY said that those in the launch location on the Eastern Shore could see the rocket for a few seconds.

The sounding rocket is a fraction of the size of the cargo ship Cygnus, which was launched earlier this month. The spacecraft sent fresh fruits and even a pizza kit to the International Space Station.

LIFTOFF❗A Terrier Improved Malemute sounding rocket carrying student experiments launched at 5 p.m. EDT. The mission provides students with real-world, hands-on opportunities building and launching an experiment. Standby for first photos!
— NASA Wallops (@NASAWallops) August 19, 2021

NASA Wants Students To Make Sophisticated Projects

NASA said in a blog post that tests are launched as part of the RockSat-X program, which collaborates between the Colorado Space Grant Consortium and the RockSat-X program. RockSat-X is part of a three-tier program to teach secondary school students how to create space experiments. It then challenges them to conceive and build increasingly sophisticated projects as they move through the program.

ALSO READ: RockOn! NASA Launched 40 University Students' Experiments Aboard Suborbital Sounding Rocket

NASA's three-phase sounding rocket program for kids, RockSat-X, is the most sophisticated. The RockOn launches begin at the beginner level, progressing to the intermediate level RockSat-C missions, and finally to the advanced level RockSat-X missions. Experiments in the RockSat-X program are launched at a higher elevation than those in the RockSat-C and RockOn programs, allowing for additional time in space.

In the same NASA blog post, Wallops' Sounding Rockets Program Office chief said Giovanni Rosanova said that the RockSat-X program allows students to take what they learn in the classroom and extend science research and technology for future spaceflight.

NASA Wants Students To Give More Ideas for Suborbital Launch

Meanwhile, NASA is inviting educators and students in grades 6 through 12 to submit projects that might be launched from Spaceport America. The competition is part of NASA's TechRise Student Challenge.

The challenge's organizers believe that it will better understand the earth's atmosphere, space exploration, and importance of test data. The deadline for submissions is November 3. The winning teams will get $1,500 to develop and launch their experiment from Spaceport America.

In a press release, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated that students' research topics through TechRise are limitless. The subjects may range from technologies to better understand our planet to novel deep space exploration systems.

According to Nelson, the space agency aims to get entries from kids all around the country, displaying the future generation's unique skills and ideas.

The press release added that the teams may use the TechRise proposal framework to submit their experiment ideas online. NASA expects to reveal the winners in January 2022. In early 2023, the selected student teams will construct their experiments and witness them take flight.