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Team America Rocketry Challenge Smashes Record for Participants in U.S. Model Rocket Contests

WASHINGTON, D.C. October 29 - More than 2,000 high school and junior high school students have registered for the Aerospace Industries Association's Team America Rocketry Challenge-making it the largest model rocket contest ever held in the United States-and the numbers are still growing, as applications continue to pour in. The contest is the first national rocket competition for high school teams and is sponsored by the AIA and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR).

Trip Barber, NAR spokesman said, "The largest previous model rocket contest, with 320 participants, was the NAR Annual Meet (NARAM) national championships held 31 years ago at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland."

AIA President and CEO John W. Douglass said that the contest would be a golden opportunity for colleges to recruit high school students for aerospace engineering studies. "Some of the sharpest and most creative young minds will be taking part in this contest," he said, "The next generation of aerospace engineers-the ones who will develop spacecraft with advanced chemical propulsion and plasma solar sail technologies-will be cutting their teeth on these model rockets."

High school teams across the country are in the process of designing, building, and flying model rockets that carry two raw eggs to 1,500 feet. Teams have until March 9, 2003, to conduct official qualifying flights. The top 100 teams will meet on May 10, 2003, at Great Meadow, The Plains, Virginia, in a national fly-off. The winning teams will share a prize pool of $59,000. NASA has added additional prizes including a chance for students to build an advanced rocket and the opportunity for teachers to attend an advanced NASA rocketry workshop, meet with NASA engineers, and tour the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Guests at the finals include NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, and NASA engineer and author Homer Hickam. Jay Apt, a NASA astronaut who flew four times as a mission specialist on the space shuttle, has agreed to be one of the two range safety officers for the competition.

For more information about AIA's Team America Rocket Challenge, including a list of registered teams and details on how to sponsor a high school team, visit www.rocketcontest.org. The deadline to enter the contest is November 15, 2002.

P.A. Rel 2002-30

10.29.02

-AIA-

Contact: Matt Grimison, AIA
(202) 371-8548
matt.grimison@aia-aerospace.org