Rocketry Planet

SHIPPENSBURG, Pennsylvania USA - NASA is helping a local college student blast his way to the top.

A senior physics and math major at Shippensburg University, Lucas Kalathas recently won a $5,000 grant from NASA.

That money will help him compete in a NASA rocket competition in the spring of 2011.

Kalathas is a one-person team, going against 33 other college teams, most of which include multiple students per team.

Launching rockets started as a hobby for him in high school, but now he sees it as a possible career.

"Back in my senior year of high school I was bored one day," recalls Kalathas. "I went to WAL-MART and walking around the isles I found a rocket kit. I just got it for the heck of it, and ever since then I just started liking flying rockets."

Kalathas says the grant money will help him focus on the project and not have to worry about sponsorships and fundraising programs.

The contest in the spring has students launching their rocket 1 mile into the air.

"What it has to do is fly as close to a mile as possible," said Kalathas. "If it goes over by too much I can be disqualified. And if I go over or under I lose points."

Kalathas wants to get his graduate degree in aerospace engineering and hopes to make a career out of launching rockets.

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