The smoke has dissipated, the thunder has fallen silent and the North Alabama launch site has emptied of the hundreds who filled it April 17-18 during the 2009-2010 NASA Student Launch Projects rocketry challenge.
More than 300 students on 31 teams -- representing middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities in 18 states -- vied to see whose rocket could come closest to the 1-mile altitude goal and safely return to Earth an on-board science payload. Ten preliminary awards were given, and the grand prize -- $5,000 from ATK Aerospace Systems in Magna, Utah -- will be awarded in May after final post-flight analysis and review is complete.
Teams designed and built their rockets and experiments during the past school year, maintained websites to document the experience, and visited schools and organizations in their communities to share their enthusiasm for rocketry and inspire younger students to work hard and pursue their goals.
The rocketeers were cheered on by more than 500 flight enthusiasts, who crowded the launch-site viewing area at Bragg Farms in Toney, Ala., and by an estimated 30,000 Internet viewers. The latter group -- which included audiences as far away as Brazil, Japan and New Zealand -- watched live launch coverage on Ustream, a one-stop shop for streaming video, Twitter and Facebook updates.
The team accepting the "Rocket Award" for best rocket for aesthetics and engineering! This award was given based on the votes by the competing teams in SLI. We are extremely honored that the other teams would vote to give us this incredible award. This is the pinnacle that we were aiming for.