Code 810: Sounding Rockets Program Office
Code 810: Sounding Rockets Program Office
30.074 NO Orion/Eberspeaker/NASA Wallops Flight Facility 6-27-2008
A
single stage Orion sounding rocket was launch from Wallops Island, VA
on June 27, 2008. The purpose of this mission was to to conduct a pilot
mission for the RockOn! Space Flight Workshop concept.
University faculty and students from across the country attended a workshop
June 22 - 27 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia.
During RockOn!, they learned the basics of building experiments for
flight on suborbital rockets.
RockOn! teams built the experiments from kits developed by students from the Colorado Space Grant Consortium and learn about the steps and procedures for creating payloads for flight. Each experiment package will include a Geiger counter and sensors for measuring temperature, acceleration and pressure. The experiments then were integrated into payload cans for launch.
The week will culminated with the launching of the
experiments early in the morning June 27 aboard a NASA Orion sounding
rocket. The 20-foot tall, single-stage rocket flew to an altitude of
67 km. After launch and payload recovery, participants conducted preliminary
data analysis and discussed their results.
Almost 60 people from universities in 22 states and Puerto Rico are participating in RockOn!. Eighty-percent of the participants are faculty members.
NASA's Space Grant program sponsors university-based consortia
that focus on developing our nation's future scientist and engineers,
as well as improving science, engineering and technology education.
Using the lessons learned through RockOn!, participants will work to
make flight experiments a part of the educational process at their home
institutions.
For more information on NASA education programs on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/education
