With adventure in their hearts and rocket launchers in hand, the recipients of the CaSGC Student Led Rocket Project awards were able to see all of their hard work pay off with several successful launches this year. Teams of students from six colleges and universities received awards for designing a rocket to be entered into a High Power Rocketry national competition in 2014.

The Citrus College Rocket Owls received one of the awards, and they recently traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah to compete in the NASA Student Launch Initiative. The Owls had a successful trip and were one of only 16 teams who completed all of the milestones and were able to launch their rocket in the competition.  The enterprising Citrus College students are now busy mentoring future scientists and engineers at La Fetra Elementary School after initiating a Junior Rocket Owls program for fifth graders.

Other awardees in the Student Led Rocket Project include the UCSD Triton Rocket Club and their “Starfish Prime” device which reached over 820 mph and soared 4,769 feet into the air.

UCSD Triton Rocket Club

California State University Long Beach entered the 2014 Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) competition and saw their aluminum finned vehicle achieve an altitude of 25,600 feet.

Cuyamaca College participated in the 2014 SEDS competition and experienced a perfect launch of their rocket. Unfortunately, there were system problems during flight and the data loggers malfunctioned, but the team learned a lot and there will be rocket competitions in their future.

CSU Long Beach

University of California Los Angeles participated in the First

Nations Launch 2014 in Wisconsin and took top honors in the flight portion of the event. The 13 UCLA students worked for nearly a year on the winning project.

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona entered the NASA Student Launch Initiative in Utah and came in fifth overall.

The CaSGC congratulates of the awardees on their hard work and dedication.