HUNTSVILLE, Alabama USA — The announcer could be heard clearly over the wind gusting across the open fields of Bragg Farms in Toney Saturday morning.

"UAH, ARE YOU READY?"

"... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ..."

In seconds, months of work disappeared into the sky, even the bright dot of the engine quickly winking out.

"That looks good," said one of the hundreds looking up and shielding their eyes from the sun.

"WAY TO GO UAH!"

A successful launch, but the mission is far from over for the school, which was defending a championship against eight other teams from across the country in NASA's University Student Launch Initiative. They won't know the overall winner until May 26, after data about all the rockets' payloads are analyzed, though there were some awards Saturday: UAH won for best vehicle design, Auburn University for best Web site and Vanderbilt University came closest to matching the target altitude of one mile with a 5,254-foot flight.

The space agency's description of the competition is deceptively simple: Each team must design, build and test a reusable rocket that will lift a scientific payload one mile and return it, safely and intact, to Earth.

Teams were judged Saturday on a number of things, including how much their rocket goes over or under the one-mile mark, said Tammy Rowan, manager of the academic affairs office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

"So, this is a test of their engineering, the design and build of the rockets," she said.

At the university level, the winning team gets $5,000 and an invitation to a shuttle launch to see how NASA and its contractors do this kind of work.

There are no such prizes in the high-school Student Launch Initiative program, which will take place next Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the same fields at Bragg Farms. The top 25 winners of the nationwide Team America Rocketry Competition were eligible, and 17 high-school teams are expected, according to NASA.

UAH's Blue Thunder carried a complex payload, integrating flight computers, a GPS navigation system, altimeters and a video camera in the nose cone with accelerometers in the middle and a detachable section that carried its own parachute, autopilot and GPS system, said Henry Mulkey, a senior.

Work on the "Charger Rocket Works" team is offered as a UAH course, and it's a particularly useful, real-world look at engineering, said Dr. Marlow Moser, the faculty sponsor.

"They learn how to integrate several systems into one thing," Moser said, watching their video and telemetry from Blue Thunder on a monitor - the readout showed it reached an unofficial altitude of 4,451 feet, knocked down by the wind a bit. There are students working on payload, propulsion, avionics, ground crew, recovery and other areas as part of the team.

"This is a very technical, hands-on class," Mulkey said.

"I really enjoyed this," said Isaiah Bowman, a senior who is already working part-time at Redstone Arsenal through a UAH program. "I wanted to get my hands dirty."

In another tent a few yards away, Auburn University's "Titans of Trajectory" were getting ready.

"We're measuring strain and temperature on the rocket" with the payload instrumentation, said Haley Allen, a senior from Madison majoring in aerospace engineering. She's planning to attend Georgia Tech in the fall and get on a rocket competition team there.

"I'll continue with it," she said. "I've got my whole family into it."

This year, teams also came from Fisk and Vanderbilt universities in Nashville, the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, College of Menominee Nation in Green Bay, Wis., Harding University in Searcy, Ark., Mississippi State University in Starkville, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and Utah State University in Logan.

Alabama A&M University has for years fielded a rocket team, and was going to compete again but learned recently a needed piece of equipment would not arrive in time, a NASA official said.

Two A&M graduates and members of the 2004 rocket team were drawn to the launches Saturday and praised the program.

"It helps with the learning," said Ebonee Walker, watching teams work on their rockets. "They have such intricate payloads now."

She graduated in 2006 and is in a post-graduate program involving both Fisk and Vanderbilt.

John Martin graduated in 2004 and now does ballistics work on the Ares I rocket for a contractor at Marshall Space Flight Center. He said working on the Alabama A&M rocket team really influenced his career.

"I use that every day," he said.

Copyright © 2008, The Huntsville Times.