Rocketry Planet

THE PLAINS, Virginia USA — The 2007 Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is officially in the record books and the top honors go to the Newark Memorial High School team of Newark, California. For their efforts, the Newark team won $10,500 in cash for the team members as well as $1,000 for their school.

In addition to the cash awards, the Newark team will also attend the June Paris Air Show as VIP guests of the Raytheon Corporation. The Newark team flew a cluster of three D12-7 Estes motors for an altitude of 851 feet with a duration of 44.14 seconds, scoring a phenomenal 1.86, almost half of the second place team's score. This is the fourth year the Newark team flew in the TARC finals.

The Honorable Robert M. Gates, the United States Secretary of Defense, served as principal speaker and award presenter. Photo: Mark Mayfield.

The second place through fifth place awards went to Madison West High School (Team 2) of Madison, Wisconsin, W.G. Enloe High School of Raleigh, North Carolina, Millington High School of Millington, Michigan and the Booker T. Washington High School (Team 2) of Houston, Texas, with scores of 3.42, 3.55, 4.31 and 4.39 respectively. A total of $60,00 in cash prizes were awarded to the top 10 teams and the top 25 teams will be invited to participate in the NASA Student Launch Initiative program for the next academic year.

Serving as the principal speaker and award presenter at today's final ceremony was the Honorable Robert M. Gates, the United States Secretary of Defense. Other honored guests included the Undersecretary of the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Director of Defense Research and Engineering, five veteran U.S. astronauts including Buzz Aldrin and the National Association of Rocketry's own Jay Apt, as well as innumerable senior officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The distinguished individuals were all there for the same reason — to show support for the contest's mission: "paying forward" to encourage the nation's brightest youths to consider aerospace and engineering as a career, a necessity some say, for America to retain its position of global leadership in the aerospace industry.

According to Trip Barber, the Team America Rocketry Challenge Manager for the National Association of Rocketry, "The TARC Finals are always a great experience for all of us who participate in them, whether as part of the NAR's 110-person range crew, as part of the Aerospace Industries Association staff, as one of the participating teams, or as a spectator. The energy, enthusiasm, and good sportsmanship of the young people who have spent the year earning the right to be there is what makes it fun."

The National Association of Rocketry (NAR) together with event sponsor Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) are the driving forces behind the event. "The arrangements provided by the sponsoring AIA and its member corporations make it a first-class event, and the beautiful Great Meadow facility is a spectacular place to fly rockets," Barber added. "A special thanks to Mr. John Douglass, President of the AIA, who originated the idea of TARC and has been its most enthusiastic supporter over its first 5 years."

The AIA Board of Governors formally vote each year to re-approve the Team America Rocketry Challenge and will meet to make that decision for the 2008 calendar year within the next couple of weeks. Barber expects the Governors to vote enthusiastically to continue the event, and once the vote is official, expected sometime in mid-June, NAR and AIA will announce TARC 2008 and its flight goals. Registration would open in early September and event rules are expected to be very similar to TARC 2007, but with a different altitude-duration combination.

TARC 2007 FINAL RESULTS

Documents: Team America Rocketry Challenge 2007 Official Results (18K Adobe PDF)

Reader comments:

#1 Congratulations all around!

Congratulations go out to Lucas Kalathas, Amber Keeseman and Scott Neidrick of Shippensburg, PA for their 30th place finish. Not bad for the first time out for our resident TARC personalities.

Congratulations go out to Newark Memorial High School's winning team for a job well done. What an awesome score!

Congratulations definitely go out to Trip Barber for a fantastic job overall and also to all of the TARC volunteers and mentors, who without you, none of this could have happened.

Good job, all!

ddmobley on 05-20-2007 10:19 PM

#2

Thanks Darrell, I, and the rest of the team, had a blast and are super happy with the results. Also congratulations to Newark HS and all other teams for making it so far and accomplishing so much.

lkal32 on 05-20-2007 11:14 PM

#3 Congratulations

Congratulations Lucas. Your team did well. TARC is an excellent program and the teams that participate deserve recognition.

Steve_Shannon on 05-21-2007 08:28 AM

#4

Congrats to everyone who made it, to the winners, and especially to Lucas and company. I'm glad y'all had fun and I was pullin' for ya'.

The winners flying on 3 D12's? Who woulda thunk it?

Raider Rocketry on 05-21-2007 11:27 AM

#5 "My" team was #4!!

Congrats to all, but especially to Millington's #2 team -- The girls (and guy) did fantastically well! You couldn't ask for a nicer bunch of kids. The #1 team from Millington (all guys) had a 7.0 in a test flight, but couldn't match that when it counted.

Looking forward to next year!!!

MikeyR on 05-22-2007 08:42 AM

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