Rocketry Planet

DENTON, Texas USA — Four Denton High School students spent part of Wednesday launching a rocket and measuring the altitude and time of the flight in a field behind the LaGrone Advanced Technology Complex.

The students, part of the six-member Junior ROTC Rocket Team, recorded the data from two qualifying flights for the 2009 Team America Rocketry Challenge, also known as TARC.

The top 100 teams nationwide, based on local qualification flight scores, will be invited to Virginia on May 16 for the seventh annual contest finals. The Denton squad qualified for the contest the last two years and finished 10th last year.

Team Capt. Gabriel Roch said he didn’t mind using his spring break to record qualifying times with teammates.

“I could be doing [other] stuff, but this is fun,” he said. “We’re doing something and we’re with friends.”

Col. Michael Dash, head of the school’s JROTC, said the team has been preparing since October. The students designed their rocket, and conducted design tests and computer simulations before making the first of five trial launches in January.

Suzy Sprague, team mentor and member of the Dallas Area Rocket Society, said the contest requires teams to design and build a rocket that can fly at a target altitude of 750 feet.

The rocket must have a raw egg horizontally on board and must land safely within 45 seconds without damaging the egg, she said.

The rocket, Sprague said, cannot weigh more than 15,000 grams — about 3.3 pounds.

The teams that come closest to the designated target time and altitude advance to the national finals, she said.

Teams may launch one practice flight before recording two qualifying flights. That qualifying data must be signed off on by a National Association of Rocketry member and then faxed to the Aerospace Industries Association by April 6, she said. Two mentors, Suzy Sprague and her husband, Jack Sprague, who are members of the NAR officiating team, witnessed Wednesday’s launches.

The Denton club’s best launch Wednesday reached 775 feet and remained airborne within a second of the target time.

The second launch climbed 813 feet high and remained airborne for 57 seconds.

The group must submit results from both launches.

Teams qualifying for nationals are notified by April 10.

According to the contest Web site, more than 7,000 students compete in the event annually. Originally created as a one-time contest celebrating the Centennial of Flight, TARC continues to encourage “students to study math and science and pursue careers in aerospace.”

Copyright © 2009, Denton Record-Chronicle.