Inver Hills Students Who Built, Launched Rocket Earn Honors From NASA

After eight months of hard work and a near-perfect launch in their first competition, a group of Inver Hills Community College students who built their own rocket has earned honors from NASA.

Members of the Inver Thrills University Student Launch Initiative team participated  in the 2010-2011 NASA University Student Launch Initiative Competition on April 16 at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The team members, who  labored for the better part of a year to construct and test their 15-foot-tall rocket, successfully launched their creation in front of NASA engineers. The rocket traveled to an altitude of 5,156 feet — just 124 feet shy of the perfect one-mile mark. The team, which was competing against major universities like Purdue, Pennsylvania State University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, placed fourth in altitude scoring.

“The competition went very nicely for us,” said Inver Thrills faculty advisor Anand Vyas. “In my opinion, our team's rocket performed much better and was closer to [the] mile limit than most other teams — only three other teams had their rocket reach an altitude closer to a mile than we did. Also, our parachutes deployed on time and landed very close to the launch platform, which is desirable.”

At the NASA USLI Banquet Awards, the team was given a congratulatory award for excellence in design, construction and testing of the high-powered rocket and scientific payload.

According to assistant team leader Bryan Sullivan, there were a few unexpected weather-related challenges and technical difficulties. Despite the obstacles, the team managed to launch the rocket "amidst the cheers of the crowd," he said.

"The entire team was highly impressed with the performance of the rocket…we were able to collect some awesome data with our scientific experiment, which we will begin analyzing soon,” Sullivan said.

With one triumphant NASA competition under their belt, the students are already contemplating next year’s plans.

Sullivan and fellow team leader Caleb Boe, the team founders, plan to transfer to Iowa State University next year, which means they will be leaving the group. Despite the loss, Vyas believes the camaraderie the team members developed this year will continue through to next year. Former team members, he added, can always support the team send helpful advice via email or online chat.

“The future of the team looks bright,” said Sullivan. “Many of our current team members are excited about a [competition next year], due to the amount of fun they had at [this year’s] competition.”

To see video from the team's launch, click here.

Correction: The article above has been changed to correct an inaccuracy. The Inver Thrills team placed fourth in the altitude portion of the competition.