WORLD WIDE WEB — NASA has invited fourteen groups of young engineers from eleven middle and high schools around the United States to participate in the 2008-2009 Student Launch Initiative at the Marshall Space Flight Center. It's a go for launch!

The Student Launch Initiative (SLI) is a program for middle school and high school students interested in designing, building, and testing reusable rockets with scientific payloads.

The fourteen teams are:

• Boy Scout Troop 143, Giddings, Texas
• Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Denmark High School, Denmark, Wisconsin
• Frenship High School, Wolfforth, Texas
• Harvard-Westlake School, North Hollywood, California
• Krueger Middle School, San Antonio, Texas
• Madison West High School Team 1, Madison, Wisconsin
• Madison West High School Team 2, Madison, Wisconsin
• Mulberry Grove High School, Mulberry Grove, Illinois
• Plantation High School Team 1, Plantation, Florida
• Plantation High School Team X, Plantation, Florida
• W.G. Enloe High School Green Team, Raleigh, North Carolina
• W.G. Enloe High School Gold Team, Raleigh, North Carolina
• Washington County 4-H, Slinger, Wisconsin

NASA engineers from the Marshall facility will first review the rockets. Then, launch activities will take place at Bragg Farms, in nearby Toney, Alabama.

The U.S. space agency hopes that the young engineer’s theoretical work with rocketry will be successfully applied in the real world during the competition.

The engineering students have been asked to design a rocket that can reach an altitude of one mile (1.6 kilometer).

Once at the Huntsville facility, the rocketeers will be evaluated on their design features, along with other pertinent aspects of their rockets.

The Tuesday, December 2, 2008 NASA report states, “In addition to designing and flying working rockets, participants will develop a project Web site, and write and submit preliminary and post-launch reports like NASA engineers working actual missions."

"Teams also will devise outreach projects for schools or youth organizations in their area, helping to spread interest in rocketry to students younger than themselves.” [NASA: “NASA Invites Young Engineers To Alabama Student Launch Initiative”]

Each new team will receive a $3,700 grant, while each returning teams receive a $2,450 grant. Each team is eligible to participate for two years.

Teams participating in the SLI competition qualify by participating at the Rockets for Schools competition held in Wisconsin or by winning the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) in Virginia.

The Wisconsin competition is held at Spaceport Sheboygan.

Over 300 students, from grades four to twelve, from Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan participate in the rocket launches.

Its goals are to make science exciting, to simulate academic interest in math, science, and technology, and to encourage students in future aerospace pursuits.

The Virginia competition involves 750 teams and about 7,000 students.

Their challenge is to design, build, and fly a one-stage rocket that can reach an altitude of 750 feet, stay airborne for at least 45 seconds, and return its payload (a egg positioned perpendicular (with respect to its long length) to the flight direction) unbroken back to the ground.

Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR) sponsor the TARC.

According to the NASA media release, “The annual event, which Marshall manages, is designed to inspire young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — fields important to NASA's exploration mission.”

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