Rocket Science Big Leagues

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Months of engineering, building and testing has paid off for 100 teams vying for the seventh annual Team American Rocketry Challenge (TARC) national title next month. Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy and the TARC team from Mitchell are the only ones to qualify for finals from the entire Mountain West region encompassing Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Forty-three teams from the region originally registered for the competition.

The Aerospace Industries Association announced the finalists for the World's Largest Rocket Contest Friday. The teams will meet in Virginia on May 16 for a final fly-off and a chance to win more than $60,000 in cash and other prizes, including an all-expenses paid trip to the Paris Air Show for the first place finishers. About 7,000 students on 653 teams from 45 states and the District of Columbia took part in the qualifying rounds of competition. Most of the students are in high school, but Kenneth Conner, one of the middle school students from Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy said, "Last year we placed fifth in the nation at finals even though were were probably the youngest team on the field. This year we hope to bring home that trip to the Paris Air Show. We think it's a realistic goal."

An impressive number of teams took part in the initial round of the competition," AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey said. "I am looking forward to seeing how these young finalists - hopefully many of whom will be future employees - respond to this year's challenge." CMCA student Erica Jesse said, "I was really intrigued by the engineering aspect, like using Apogee's design and simulation software to fly designs on the computer before we built real rockets."

The teams design, build and launch model rockets with a raw-egg payload that must return to the ground unbroken. This year's contest goals are an altitude of 750 feet and a flight time of 45 seconds. The rockets must transport the egg laid horizontally to mimic the position of an astronaut. The Colorado teams are at a tremendous disadvantage compared with lowlands teams, because now they have to design and build a new rocket to fly to a different altitude in Virginia at finals because of the air density and humidity differences.

The Colorado Springs TARC teams will be launching every week until they leave for finals. Launches will be held at Fox Meadow middle school, Challenger Middle School, and the mid-power COSROCS site in Peyton.

The teams need additional financial support for testing and travel expenses. Donations are 501(c)3 deductible for the CMCA team. Please call CMCA at 471-1999 or use the contact information on the team's web page.

We would like to give special thanks to our current supporters: Thad Zylka, ITT, Cheyenne Mountain Charter Adademy/PTO, Brandango.us, ISS, and Colorado Aerospace Education Foundation. The Mitchell team flew their best qualification flight at CRASH in Denver, and we thank CRASH for their support. Thanks especially to COSROCS for going well beyond normal mentoring and support, especially Warren Layfield, Ernie Puckett and George Shaiffer.