HERMINIE, Pennsylvania USA — Four Yough Senior High School students and their physics teacher will reach new heights when they blast off their 11-foot-long rocket in front of NASA engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., this week.

The Yough Cougar Rocketry team of juniors Alicia Bowser, Amy Bickerstaff and Anthony "Tony" Barbera, and sophomore Ashley Wiley, along with math and physics teacher Donald L. Gilbert Jr., are flying to Alabama today to participate in NASA's Student Launch Initiative.

Their rocket - nicknamed Dorothy after the character in the Wizard of Oz and the research mechanism in the movie, "Twister" - will fly to an altitude of 1 mile above ground level.

It will then deploy a series of crepe-paper streamers attached to paint balls, affectionately called "whirly birds" by the students. The wind will carry the whirly birds away from the launch site and return them safely to the ground.

Each "bird" will be tracked through the use of GPS locator software to calculate the distance traveled. The data will be compared to predicted landing zones to determine the difference in upper-level winds to ground-level winds.

"The purpose of the experiment is to determine if surface-level wind speeds can accurately determine the dispersion pattern of objects released from higher altitudes," Gilbert said. "The data could be used to track dust, pollen, volcanic ash or biological materials released into the air to predict fallout regions."

The project began last year, right after the rocketry team took 19th place in the Team America Rocketry Challenge finals in Virginia. NASA selected 15 high school rocketry teams from across the United States to participate in the Student Launch Initiative.

"We had approximately 400 man-hours just in paperwork on this project," Tony said. "We had to write four reports, including preliminary design and critical review, for NASA."

"These reports were roughly 90 pages long each, and we had to do PowerPoint presentations for three of them," Amy said.

A quarter-scale model was constructed and successfully launched in the high school football stadium in mid-November. Then the team began work on the full-scale rocket.

Ernie Walters of Uniontown, a Level 3 Tripoli Rocketry Association member certified to handle propellant for high-powered rockets, lent his expertise. Eric Haberman, of the Westinghouse, Waltz Mill division, cut the Fiberglas for the rocket's body. A grant from the Academic Affairs Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center contributed to the rocket's cost of close to $2,000.

The students will return from Alabama on Sunday. Their data and final report for NASA are due May 18.

"We're missing the prom, and I'm missing a national quiz bowl competition for this," Tony said. "Through this project, I learned about hard work, dedication and perseverance."

"I think we learned a lot about ourselves," Amy said.

"Even when we're on deadline, we can get things done," Ashley added.

"It's interesting to build something that flies and that's federal-government worthy," Alicia said.

She and Tony want to study engineering in college. She will pursue an aeronautic engineering degree. Tony said he wants to go into either mechanical or electrical engineering.

Because the project is so time-consuming and expensive, Gilbert said he doubted the team would undertake a second project next year.

Donations to help pay for the rocket are still being collected at the school, 919 Lowber Road, Herminie, Pa. 15637.

Copyright © 2007, The Valley Independent.