LOUISVILLE, Kentucky USA — Jackson Helson has learned a little about engineering, aerodynamics and meteorology as a member of Sacred Heart Model School's rocketry team.

Testing rockets in 30-mph winds doesn't work as well as it does in 10- to 15-mph winds, said Jackson, who is 13 and an eighth-grader.
  
"We've lost many rockets in many trees" on bad-weather days, he said.

Jackson, of St. Matthews, was one of nine students from Sacred Heart who qualified for the finals of the Team America Rocketry Challenge in Virginia, the world's largest model rocket contest, last month, according to the National Association of Rocketry.

More than 500 students on 100 middle and high school teams competed for $60,000 in cash and prizes in The Plains, Va.

The only other Kentucky team was Munfordville School.

The Sacred Heart team came in 80th.

To qualify for nationals, students had to build a rocket that could carry a raw egg as close as possible to 850 feet in the air and stay aloft for up to 45 seconds before landing safely with the egg intact, said Ben Randell, a science and math teacher who coaches the rocketry team.

Anna Popp, 13, said last year's team did not make the national contest, motivating this year's team to try harder than ever.

Anna, an eighth-grader who lives near Windy Hills, said the team greatly improved its communication, rocket design and data collection.

The team builds rockets in a manner similar to professionals, said Anna's father, Tom Popp, who is an engineer and the team's mentor.

"The contest promotes teamwork, delegation of tasks and group decisions," Popp said in a press release announcing Sacred Heart's participation. "It requires a lot of rigorous work, including continuous modification of the rocket and collection of data. You can never have enough data."

Sam Sonnier, who is 13 and a seventh-grader, said he was excited to go on the trip but had just one concern about the contest.

He said he was "nervous about the rocket not going off."

Copyright © 2007, The Courier-Journal.