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WASHINGTON, D.C., September 7 - Applications for the 2005 Team America Rocketry Challenge national model rocket contest are available today for high school and middle school students in the United States at www.rocketcontest.org. The rocket contest will challenge students to design, build, and fly model rockets that carry one or two raw eggs for precisely 60 seconds, returning the eggs to the ground unbroken.

More than 16,000 students from every state participated in the last two contests, making the Team America Rocketry Challenge the world's largest model rocket contest. The Challenge provides student teams with a realistic experience in designing a flying aerospace vehicle that meets a specified set of mission and performance requirements.

The contest is co-sponsored by the National Association of Rocketry (NAR), America's largest and oldest association of sport rocket fliers. The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) is the Challenge’s sole educational partner. AAPT is celebrating the “World Year in Physics,” which marks the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s publication of three important papers that have influenced all of modern physics.

The contest requires that teams be made up of three to fifteen students currently enrolled in grades 7 through 12 in a U.S. school. Teams will be composed of students at the same middle school or high school, or members of the same chapter or unit of a U.S. incorporated non-profit youth organization (excluding the National Association of Rocketry, Tripoli Rocketry Association, or any other rocket club or organization). Teams will be supervised by a teacher approved by the principal of their school or by an officially-appointed adult leader of their youth organization. Each student member will be required to make a significant contribution to the design, building, or launching of the team's entry and no part may be done by an adult, by a company or by any person not a student on that team. Supervising teachers may supervise more than one team.

The first 1,250 teams that submit an application package postmarked on or before November 30, 2004, will be allowed to compete in this year’s event. The contest finals will be May 21, 2005, at The Plains, Virginia. The registration fee is $80. Additional information is at www.rocketcontest.org.

-AIA-

Visit AIA’s homepage at www.aia-aerospace.org