Awards Day for the Red Bird #18 2017Alumni

Today, Friday, December 22, 2017 at 10:30 in Mr. Matthes’ classroom, FHS Engineering Class of 2017 was presented with their banner for a successful flight of the Red Bird #18 at White Sands Missile Range last summer.

They received the Goddard Level Newton Award from SystemsGo. The award was presented to them by Scott Netherland, Executive Director of SystemsGo.

Photographed (right to left): Colby Marthaller, Sterling Weatherford, Matthew Dulaney, Ian Kendrick, Hannah Boubel, Cody Pruett, Joseph Sanchez, Ricky Robles, Scott Netherland, and Payton Carroll.

The banner will be displayed at the FHS campus at a later date.

Congratulations to these students on their achievement as well as future endeavours.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org . Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

2017/2018 Fredericksburg’s Engineering/Rocket Program-October/Early November Hi Lights

September and October have come and gone and we are now half way through November and the Fredericksburg High School Engineering Program is deep into their studies busy learning and working at all levels. Eight weeks have passed since our first Engineering Program update and the first semester is halfway through.

Since our last update, the Freshmen have created an electrical design for the NASA built and designed Orion space capsule. Keith Kunz from Teledyne was their audience for this presentation. Teledyne works with offshore oil exploration developing and designing hard and software for their use. As an audience for these presentations, individuals like Mr. Kunz, provide constructive criticism such as design strengths and weaknesses, areas that did not match the design logic, things that were overlooked, and skills of presentation.

Currently the Freshman are working on a bio-engineering project, which will be designed to help student, Cody Bearden, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which keeps him confined to a wheelchair. It will be a hoverchair. Yesterday they presented their project to a new audience, consisting of Tim Nolan, an AirEvac pilot and previous Marin Corps helicopter pilot, Todd Keener a mechanical engineer, and Scott Netherland, Executive Director of SystemsGo . Details on this presentation will be forthcoming in our next update.

Sophomore students are still working at their own pace in this year’s class. Due to this, the further along the year rolls, the larger the gap is between the slowest and fastest student. Because of this some are already starting to learn Isometrics, which are 2D representations of 3D objects. The class as a whole is also studying Dimensioning.

“They are all making good progress, but having them self pace has led to some really taking off with AutoCAD,” states Mr. Matthes.

The Engineering program flew in Brian Evans from Space Propulsion Group out of Butte, Montana to conduct a two-day seminar for the Juniors and Seniors.

Pictured here are Juniors, Gloria Burns, Cooper McDonald and Eston Cooke with Mr. Evans:

According to Mr. Matthes, “Students really enjoyed having insight from Mr. Evans.”

For the past two months, the Juniors have been learning new skills on Excel which allowed them to better understand the math of starting a new model. They have been creating spreadsheets for a hypothetical bakery where they used calculation, look ups and other functions in order to track materials, hours, and productivity. Class time has been split between this project and the physics of flight.

Three weeks earlier, the class flew their Generation 1 rockets. The parameters for this first flight, were just have a rocket on the pad to fly and served as a platform for them to learn and start asking questions on how to correct their flights.

These flights were of varying degrees of stability with some being completely unstable, some having a corkscrew affect and others displaying very straight flights. The instruction on stability follows this flight test and leads into the Generation 2 tests.

Last week Generation 2 rockets were finally launched. They had been patiently waiting due to several scheduling conflicts with school college fair days and bad weather, windy days.

For this test they actually had to prove the stability of their rockets. This is accomplished by literally cutting the rockets in half. Students are forced to be intentional about stabilizing their vehicles. The pictures below are from the Generation 2 flights.

Here, Eduardo Memije and Gloria Burns load their G1 Rocket for launching.

In this photo, Deja Turkett and Bradley Plaza take their turn for launch.

Here the whole Junior class group displays their rockets on launch day.

Currently they are splitting their class time between LabVIEW Programming which they have just begun and the continued study of the physics of flight. Next they will be studying fluids, aerodynamics and drag, and impulse, as well as factors affecting drag, this is all part of prepping for Generation 3 rockets.

According to Mr. Matthes, “Their next objective is to reach 1800 feet using RockSim to design the rockets. They are assessed on the closeness of construction to design: it is a tough mark to make without extreme precision.”

On Tuesday, Nov. 7, the Seniors traveled to Houston. After arrival, the group spent four hours at Space Center Houston. According to Mr. Matthes, the students, “had a blast!”

In this mock up, Evan Knapp mounts the Space Shuttle on top of the 747 that transports the shuttle back to Kennedy Space Center.

Corbin Smajstrla is seen here pumping iron on different planets where the gravity is not the same.

Chris Calzada (left) and Rebecca Sechrist (below) pose for pictures in space.

Evan Knapp maneuvers his EVA device back to the ISS as Chris Calzada and Harrison Spisak look on.

Next the group visited Rocket Park so that the students could get a visual grasp on the enormity of the Saturn V Rocket that took men to the moon and back.

Relaxing at the end of the day beneath the Apollo capsule on the Saturn V.

The entire travelling crew. Top row: Instructor Andrew Matthes, Harrison Spisak, Chris Calzada, Corbin Smajstrla, and Evan Knapp. Bottom row: Rebecca Sechrist, Pierce Vasquez, Joey Leal, and Sergio Walle.

Later, Joyce Abbey, the voice of the SystemsGo launches, and Dave Ladrack, a longtime program friend and supporter, joined the students for dinner.

On Wednesday, Nov. 8, they arrived at Johnson Space Center along with nine other schools and met, Chris Madsen, pictured below, a Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) engineer in the flight dynamics department.

Mr. Madsen coordinated and oversaw the program for the students, and gave an overview of College Co-op opportunities. He encouraged the students to be involved and to acquire work experience while still in college. All nine schools gave presentations of their flight models explaining the projected flights of their rockets to engineers and representatives from other schools who have also taken on a similar tasks.

After lunch the documentation students need in order to be cleared for flight at White Sand next summer, was discussed. Mr. Madsen used examples and an overview of his job in comparison so that students could see that what he does is similarly an extremely more complex version of what the students are building.

Later that afternoon, FHS had a meeting to present preliminary design reviews of both the wind tunnel project and Redbird #19 to five engineers. This was three hours of presentation and a question and answer session.

“It was a tremendous opportunity for the students and the feedback was excellent,” reported Mr. Matthes. “The trip was a success.”

Design progress has been made on Redbird #19 but many details still have to be worked out before it can be considered an integrated system.

Mr. Matthes feels that, “The input from this trip will be significantly helpful for drawing both flaws and considerations to light as they proceed forward. “

The group has been working hard to pull together everything for the Redbird #19 presentation, this has made it necessary to put Teststand on hold for the past week.

Something new the Engineering Program is working on, is the N.E.W. Y.O.U. Event, short for National Engineers Week Youth Outreach United. This will be the first time the FHS Engineering Program will be hosting this event. The purpose of this event, is to expose students from 4th through 8th graders to engineering. They will participate in activities and interact with high school engineering students while learning in a fun and relaxed environment.

FHS Engineering Program has already been readying for the event with two separate planning meetings involving about 20 students in order to organize and divide tasks. Everything is moving along well and they anticipate a great event.

National Engineers Week will begin February 18th. The N.E.W.Y.O.U Event will be held the day before on Saturday, February 17th. Forth through sixth graders will attend the morning session, and seventh and eighth graders will attend the afternoon/evening session.

This article is the second for the 2017/2018 school year in a series of monthly updates that will follow the Fredericksburg Engineering/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support and encourage students in the program as they share their working status and accomplishments throughout the year in the program. These publications will be available for tags and re-posting.

2017/2018 Fredericksburg’s Engineering/Rocket Program-September Hi Lights

The new school year is three weeks into session and with it, the Fredericksburg High School Engineering Program has begun working toward new goals.

This year (Fall semester) there are actually classes representing each grade level. This is different from last year in that there were two classes of Freshman in the fall and two classes of Sophomores in the spring. There will be a class of 12 Freshman in the fall and another class of 12 in the spring, and a class of 16 Sophomores in the fall and another class of 12 in the spring.

The Freshman classes began by learning about the design and development loop. This is important because it gives them an understanding on how industry approaches problems in order to develop new innovation. Leadership and teamwork have been a strong topic of class discussion as well as exercises to put these traits into practice. This week in class they are testing cardboard structures they have built as part of the structural project part of their class.

Pictured: Kyle Kuhlman, Andrew Kendrick, and Gavin West.

Pictured: Luke Tucker, Benji Robles, and Kolby Fryburger.

Pictured: Paige Guzy, Emily Ma, Evertt Borton.

Pictured: Nehemiah Cabral, Sadie Eidson, and Eli Rode.

Here the whole class shows off their cardboard structures for testing.

Sadie Eidson with an unofficial test of her structure post ‘real’ testing while Gavin West looks on awaiting collapse without satisfaction.

Pictured here is this semester’s Freshman class: Back Row: Kolby Fryburger, Luke Tucker, Everett Borton, Gavin West, Nehemiah Cabral, Benji Robles. Front Row: Eli Rode, Andrew Kendrick, Kyle Kuhlman, Sadie Eidson, Paige Guzy, Emily Ma.

Mr. Matthes reports, “They are doing very well.”

Sophomores are practicing drawing multi-views by hand. Students are able to work at their own pace this year, as long as they meet scheduled deadlines on assignments. This allows for those that learn at a faster pace to advance in the curriculum a little sooner. It should also allow them to have more time to become proficient on 3D modeling which will be a skill they will need as they move up in future classes. Soon they will begin the basics of drawing on AutoCAD. Due to the individual pacing, one student was able to begin AutoCAD yesterday.

Pictured here is this semester’s Sophomore class: Back Row: Noah Downey; Tommy Johnson, Gavin Eckert, Lane Wallendorf, Ryan Scroggie, Landon West, Clay Crouse. Front Row: Dalton Waters, Blake Boubel, Ryan Davis, Luke Duderstadt, Ryan Majors, Chad Braden, Gerry Balderas. Not Pictured here are Josephine Shaw and Alek Vasquez.

Junior and Senior classes will encompass both semesters as one class group each. There are 22 Juniors in the program and 10 Seniors.

Due to the accelerated class schedule implemented at FHS last year, most one year courses are now accomplished in one semester. Because of this, the Junior year course study is actually two classes in one spread out over both semesters. Class time is currently split between two courses of study. In the first half of class they are beginning the basics of hybrid rocket propulsion and the book learning of the math to model it. In the second half of the class, they have researched advanced technology and dimensional analysis.

According to Mr. Matthes, “Many of them reflected afterward that they have a better understanding of math, how to work with units, what the units mean, and how the math has meaning and can be worked like a puzzle. They are very excited and extremely sharp. They work effectively as a group and seem to have great chemistry together.”

Pictured here is this year’s Junior class: Back Row: Jabin Gipson, Cooper McDonald, Ander Castaneda, Gabe Voorhees, Jose Escalante, Clay Ellebracht, Dawson Harkins. Middle Row: Jana Brockmann, Robert Sanchez, Esten Cooke, Gloria Burns, Carl Wilger, Nicholas Rodriguez, Lucio Castro, Cody Blohm. Front Row: Eduardo Memije, Robert Zowie, Brad Plaza, Ethan Scott, Deja Turkett, Rudy Avila, Josh Handley.

The Seniors are a busy and ambitious group this year. They have taken on four large endeavors including: The Red Bird #19 Rocket, a wind tunnel, the NASA large motor test stand, and the Small HyperTek interface test stand, known as Baby Bird.

The Red Bird #19 will actually be a modified version of the Red Bird #17 from two years ago which did not leave the rail due to the injection failing. They will be rebuilding the propulsion and injection systems in order to correct the past problems with the rocket that kept it from launching in 2016. –Small editorial comment here: As we have seen with other schools in past years at WSMR, this does not mean an easy fix. Quite often trying to correctly discern and correct another team’s issues on an unsuccessful vehicle can be harder than starting from scratch. It will be interesting to follow them and see what they find and how these new modifications affect this year’s flight test at WSMR. FHS Engineering Project Leadership for Red Bird #19 is Chief Engineer, Harrison Spisak, and Project Manager, Bryce Erwin.

The Wind Tunnel is new for this year. This device is for testing drag on an object. To do this, the system uses a fan to create artificial wind which is forced over the object to create a drag. FHS Engineering Project Leadership for the wind tunnel is Chief Engineer, Pierce Vasquez, and Project Manager,Rebecca Sechrist.

Testing on Baby Bird, the Hypertek test stand continues this year. The purpose of this test stand, as highlighted in the last year’s updates, is to test a fuel grain system designed and developed by the students to interface with the hypertek injector and tank. Original plans were that three successful tests on this test stand would result in the opportunity for the seniors in the Fredericksburg Engineering Program to fly a new Hybrid student developed rocket at Willow City. This year’s team is continuing testing and development for this goal. FHS Engineering Project Leadership for this test stand is Chief Engineer, Evan Knapp, and Project Manager, Sergio Walle.

Testing also continues on the NASA Test stand for large motors. Even though there is no new grant from NASA this year, there are plenty of materials acquired from last year’s grant to continue testing. FHS Engineering Project Leadership for this test stand is Chief Engineer, Joey Leal, and Project Manager, Corbin Smajstrla.

Mr. Matthes commented about this year’s seniors, “The group, already has plans set to come in this weekend to begin their endeavors. They seem both excited about the projects and motivated to accomplish them.”

Last school year the program implemented a Senior out of class work schedule. Students signed a contract requiring them to commit to a set amount of overtime/after class work time in order to meet all deadlines and complete their rocket/projects for the year. The group is currently establishing a working schedule in order to implement these hours.

Pictured here is this year’s Senior class: Back Row: Harrison Spisak, Jacob Wienecke, Evan Knapp, Bryce Erwin, Sergio Walle. Front Row: Corbin Smajstrla, Rebecca Sechrist, Pierce Vasquez, Joey Leal. Not pictured in the seniors picture was Chris Calzada.

You may have seen the following information on a flyer your Engineering student brought home inviting you to the FHS open house that was held on Monday, September 11. If you no longer have it or were not able to attend, Mr. Matthes has asked that you take note of the following date and time for:

FHS Engineering Night

SAVE THE DATE:

When: Monday, SEPTEMBER 25^TH, 6:00PM

Why: Learn about the nationally recognized FHS Engineering/Rocket Program

Who: Anyone – tell other parents and your friends, even if they aren’t in the program until next semester or aren’t a part of it yet. It is available to interested and current students as well as parents and interested community members.

Where: Auditorium, plan on sitting up front for an “A”. Address is 1107 S. Highway 16

What: Information/Order forms on Polos, t-shirts, decals and lanyards.

Including: Program objectives, overview of classes, media, and special guest alumni via Skype.

Follow Us, the FHS Engineering Program

You and your student are also invited to use the forms of media communication listed below to receive information and updates on all things Engineering.

The first is REMIND, (a text format) where you will find event notifications, updates, organizational coordination, and brief positive news provided on the program.

Text to 81010 the message @fhseng2021 for freshman Principles of Applied Engineering class

Text to 81010 the message @fhseng2020 for sophomores Engineering Design and Presentation 1

Text to 81010 the message @fhseng2019 junior Engineering Design and Presentation 2

Text to 81010 the message @fhseng2018 seniors Engineering Design & Problem Solving, Scientific Research and Design

Mr. Matthes sincerely hopes that students and parents will more actively follow and invest in the Engineering Program here at FHS. One method to help with this is providing updates related to engineering and our Engineering Program through social media. These will contain postings related to student activities as well as industry activity. Familiarity with current events and current research in industry is a major source of inspiration and exposure to potential future endeavors.

fhseng

https://www.instagram.com/fhseng/?hl=en

FHS S.T.E.M. Academy

@engineeringfhs

https://www.facebook.com/engineeringfhs/

The entire Engineering Program was invited to a movie night at the engineering classroom, Wednesday evening, September 13 at 7:00 p.m. They viewed the movie the Matrix. Mr. Matthes believed that a correlation between the students and the movie characters could be drawn and that could be beneficial to them. “It is my hope they recognize the metaphor for their own lives and begin to believe in themselves as I believe them, as Morpheus believes in Neo.” About 20 were able to attend.

This article is the first for the 2017/2018 school year in a series of monthly updates that will follow the Fredericksburg Engineering/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support and encourage students in the program as they share their working status and accomplishments throughout the year in the program. These publications will be available for tags and re-posting.

Monday Rockets Headed to White Sands-Day 1-Report and Tuesday Early Information

The SystemsGo team left Fredericksburg at 9:00 a.m. this morning headed to White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico. They arrived in Alamogordo, NM, for lodging at 5:30 this evening. All participating schools also arrived safely.

Tomorrow is an informational and set up day. SystemsGo personnel and all students, teachers, and parents from the schools head out at 6:30 a.m. for T-1 briefing and a short presentation by each school on their vehicle and it’s expectations. Afterwards SystemsGo, students and necessary personnel go to West Center 50 launch site to set up and prep vehicles. Parents will be dismissed at that time to find their own entertainment for the day.

Wednesday is the first launch day and at this point, it is slated to be an early morning. Fredericksburg STEM Academy is first up to launch for the day and the current schedule has them testing at 6:00 a.m. The hope is to test 3 vehicles by 10:00 a.m, including Union Grove and Alamo Heights.

Event details will continue to be available here. I will provide more information each day as to how the schedule and other event details will progress for that day and how launches went for the schools testing the previous day. Pictures are not allowed on the range, but some pictures of teams getting ready to leave for the range with their vehicles might be available. If anything is available, I will post it for your viewing pleasure.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org . Take the time to get your school involved; the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

Team photo includes from left to right, Josh Hampton, Gene Garrett, Steve Burow, Kasey Burow, Rebecca Hyatt, Scott Netherland, Brian Heffner, and Ginger Burow. Not available for this picture, Chelsea Burow and Andrew Matthes. Chelsea joined them in Alamogordo, and Mr. Matthes traveled with his students.

Rockets 2017-Sunday’s Report-End of Fredericksburg Launches

Sunday is usually a light day at rockets, but not this year. Although we only had 5 schools, there were 16 rockets to launch. Out of those 15 made it to the air. The last one was still in stage 3 with some issues to be fixed, when nature decided we were done for the weekend and a storm rolled in with lightning and rain. Luckily many areas had been packing things they no longer needed so at least it wasn’t all left to do in the down pour. We all pretty much got soaked anyway, but hey that is Rockets, the weather is always a factor.

We had a total of 81 rockets launched for the weekend and found all but 14 according to recovery captain, Braxton Roemer, seen here quizzing kids and adults on late 80’s rock and pop music during a break in the action.

This gives the recovery group about a 92% recovery rate for the weekend. It could be 93 because Steve found one late yesterday afternoon but was unable to recover it due to severe lightning, but he knows where it is, so either someone will eventually go back for it, the land owner will find it and bring it in, or it will be Team Burow’s first find next year.

Yesterday, I let Steve go solo on recovery, and I joined my daughter, Chelsea, at the pad. I was able to watch first hand all that goes on to get these vehicles in the air. The pad crew makes it look easy, but it’s a little more complicated than what you might think. The original crew of Chelsea Burow, Anissa Kneese,

Josh Hampton, Bryan Heffner, and Cade Ottmers has had years of practice to get things right. This year they were even training some new recruits in the program, freshman, Troy Kneese, and senior, Jesse Cedillo.. Jesse will be attending Angelo State University in the fall for computer science.

It is a coordinated effort as rockets come to the pad, and they do pictures of the students with the rocket “set” on the rail. Afterwards, the students return to Mission Control so the pad crew can load the rocket properly and safely.

Crew members then attach the match and seat the motor onto the stem assembly, which is a two-part tube fit tightly together, which delivers Nitruos into the tank, and allows Gox to flow over the fuel grain to help with ignition. The stem is fed through the fuel grain and the bell of the motor into the tank of the rocket. This can be difficult as it has to go through very small opens inside the motor and has to be done totally by feel and knowledge of the different motors used in the vehicles, and the vehicle has to be level while doing this. It is no small task, but this group makes it look easy, most of the time. The consensus on the pad is the “L” motors are the worst to seat. There were quite a few L motors yesterday, but they managed them all. Jesse is seating a rocket in his photo above.

After this is achieved they do systems checks and then raise the rail, ready for launches. This is referred to as “going vertical”.

Pad members work in small groups throughout the pad attempting to load all 6 rails if enough vehicles are available. Occasionally it takes the whole crew at once to raise the rails on some of the larger or more complicated rockets.

When launching begins and a vehicle is “Armed” (this is basically the altimeter is turned on and verified to be working) then all must clear the pad except the two members working to launch a particular rocket. Next they go for fill, after which the launch count down sequence is initiated. At this point the they run for cover in the bunkers.

After the rocket has cleared the pad everyone watches skyward and hopes for a good flight and successful deployment of the recovery system. Once the vehicle is confirmed down or determined to be too far away and has no chance of coming down near the pad, then the crew is back out to work the next one.

If a rocket fails to leave the rail, then the pad crew determines if it is something they can fix on the rail or if it has to be unloaded and returned to Stage 3. At which point the students and technicians will re-evaluate and determine if they can fix the vehicle for another attempt at launch, or abort.

The crew members are all past students of the program and know quite well what to look for if a rocket fails to launch. Most of the time it is minor things that can be fixed on the spot, but not always. Another factor that will cause a delay on the pad is empty fuel tanks. At that point they move to another rail while tanks are replaced.

This is just a small synopsis of what they do and not nearly all of their skills. They are an accomplished group and I really enjoyed my time there on Sunday. I helped where I could with several rockets, took pictures of students and their rockets, and the launches, and assisted in tearing down the 1 lb/1 ml rails and other aspects of the pad that were no longer needed as we were awaiting the arrival of the final Transonic launches.

Since most of you know that I am in Recovery out at rockets each year, I will let you know I didn’t shirk my duties completely. I recovered a nose cone, a rocket bottom ring, and two body tube shrapnel pieces from two different launches while working at the pad.

This marks the end of another great year of rockets for the smaller level vehicles. Rockets 2017 has only the Goddard level launches left which are coming up in late June. There is a fairly strong date, but I won’t be posting that until closer to time since they can still be subject to change at the Army’s need. I will keep everyone posted on that as information is available. Good luck to all those schools and safe travels when you go there. For more information as usual check their website at www.systemsgo.org .

I will be posting a final update on how the Fredericksburg STEM Academy’s junior class rocket did this past Thursday at Willow City. They are evaluating their data and then we will have more details.

The following is a link to the album of pictures from Sunday’s launch. Have a look, you and your school rocket just might be in there.

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow/media_set?set=a.1479975588690234.1073741892.100000334203350&type=3&pnref=story

Event details will be available here each day of any launch event. Daily reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures and some editorial content will also be posted.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org .Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

#SystemsGo #Rockets2017 #FredericksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01 #SystemsGoNewMexico

Rockets 2017-Saturday Report-Williams Retirement- Sunday Schedule

Saturday was another great day of launches. Let’s see who is paying attention, we had 21 rockets on the schedule and we launched 23. The answer is later in the story. After storms came through the area over night and early this morning, causing a two-hour rain delay, rockets finally started flying around lunch time. The sky finally opened a window of opportunity.

Even though launches started late, Stages 1 and 2 continued on schedule. This meant that when weather finally permitted launching, the spectator tent where rockets wait to go down to Stage 3, was full with more waiting than I have ever seen there.

This evening after launches were completed for the schools, two more rockets were sent up as a tribute to retired FHS STEM teacher and SystemsGo founder Brett Williams. They were both recovered in short order and taken to the Willow City Fire House where a dinner was hosted in his honor. He developed the program that all these schools use to teach the STEM curriculum across Texas and now New Mexico as well.

Several people gave a tribute address honoring and telling stories about Mr. Williams, including Scott Netherland, Andrew Matthes, Rebekah Hyatt, Dave Cambell, and Tom Moser.

Tom is a retired NASA rocket program member who became involved with the program. He served NASA as Deputy Associate Administrator for space station and space flight. These were just one of his many duties at NASA. Tom is one on a list of many influential people who Brett recruited to support the program over the years. After his address, he presented Brett with a NASA Citation for his work and contribution to the STEM program and student education.

Below is the launch schedule for today, Sunday. There are 5 schools launching a total of 16 rockets.

Sunday, May 21, 2017
School Name	# 1st Level Tsiolkovsky	# 2nd Level Oberth
Alamo Heights High School Colin Lang		3
Hardin-Jefferson High School Mike Fogo	3	1
Manor High School Will Davis	3
New Tech Odessa Richard Linder	1	1
Roosevelt High School Jared Warsing	3	1


5
Schools Launching
Totals	11	7
May 15^th Total Rockets	18

The following is a link to the album of pictures from today’s launch. Have a look, you and your school rocket just might be in there.

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow/media_set?set=a.1479031692117957.1073741890.100000334203350&type=3&pnref=story

Here is the second album link to the pictures from Brett William’s party.

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow/media_set?set=a.1479469515407508.1073741891.100000334203350&type=3&uploaded=36

Good luck to all the schools launching on Sunday. I will update the blog after we complete our day again tomorrow. Here is the link to the live stream again.

http://livestream.com/systemsgo

Please remember that although there is no charge for the event, and these launches are open to public viewing, parking and seating is limited due to safety requirements. For this reason, SystemsGo has a provided a link for you to pre-order tickets for those in your party. That link can be found at SystemsGo Events page. This also provides SystemsGo with a way to monitor the number of people in attendance each year. This is in no way meant to discourage your attendance, but is instead to help them provide a great experience for students and spectators, while doing all possible to monitor safety issues and attendance numbers at any one time during the launches.

Event details will be available here each day of the event. Daily reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures and some editorial content will also be posted.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org .Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

#SystemsGo #Rockets2017 #FredericksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01 #SystemsGoNewMexico

Fredericksburg Rockets 2017-Thursday Day 1 Report – Friday Schedule

Thursday went well. It started off a little slow due to clouds and a low ceiling. Fortunately, it burned off in the afternoon and launches started lining up with only intermittent delays. it was basically a warm, humid, and windy day, but turned out well in the end for rockets. Recovery went fairly well with only a few Transonics still in the field at the end of the day. Hopefully they will still be recovered before the end of the weekend.

Original Fredericksburg High School STEM teacher and SystemsGo originator and program developer was on site today. He visited with folks, observed how things were working and even worked the Pad until around lunch. It was a nice treat having him on site a while again. He even said he might drop by again before the weekend is over.

We also had working guests from the new SystemsGo New Mexico. Director David Willden was helping a mission control as well as one recovery team that was from his group too. #SystemsGoNewMexico

The original schedule listed 22 rockets, but the final total launched was 19.

Below is the launch schedule for tomorrow, Friday. There are 7 schools launching a total of 25 rockets tomorrow.

Friday, May 19, 2017
School Name	# 1st Level Tsiolkovsky	# 2nd Level Oberth
Buinger CTE Academy Michael Skrzynski	2	3
Hamilton High School Seaborn Achby	1	1
Marble Falls High School Leslie Alexander	2	1
RL Turner High School Bill Richardson	2
Tom Moore (Ingram) High School David Bunch	4
Union Grove High School Greg Park	2	1
University High School Dennis Oubre	4	2
7
Schools Launching
Totals	17	8
May 13^th Total Rockets	25

The following is a link to the album of pictures from today’s launch. Have a look you and your school rocket just might be in there.

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow/media_set?set=a.1476991132322013.1073741888.100000334203350&type=3&uploaded=143

Good luck to all the schools launching on Friday. If I get a chance to do some updates during the day tomorrow , then I will but don’t count on it. It will probably just be one at the end of day. Here is the link to the live stream again.

http://livestream.com/systemsgo

Please remember that although there is no charge for the event, and these launches are open to public viewing, parking and seating is limited due to safety requirements. For this reason, SystemsGo has a provided a link for you to pre-order registration tickets for those in your party. This also provides SystemsGo with a way to monitor the number of people in attendance each year. This is in no way meant to discourage your attendance, but is instead to help them provide a great experience for students and spectators, while doing all possible to monitor safety issues and attendance numbers at any one time during the launches. These tickets are FREE. They can be found on the SystemsGo Events page. Look for the little ticket icon that says, “Admit One”.

Event details will be available here each day of the event. Daily reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures and some editorial content will also be posted.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org .Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.

#SystemsGo #Rockets2017 #FredericksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01 #SystemsGoNewMexico

Rockets 2017-Houston, Done-Fredericksburg Launches Start Tomorrow in Willow City-Thursday Schedule Included

The SystemsGo team arrived home around 11:00 Sunday night from the Houston Rockets 2017 launches. They had a good event with over with 39 rockets tested at the new location in Smith Point, south of Anahuac. They transitioned to Willow City on Monday as launches begin there tomorrow, Thursday for Fredericksburg Rockets 2017.

Set up and preparations have been underway all week to insure a great event at Hillview Ranch again this year.

The schedule boasts 26 schools and 87 rockets for this year’s event.

Launches will be Thursday through Sunday between 8:30 and 5:30. Phil Houseal will be there providing Livestream from the site again this year so friends and family can watch the action online if they cannot be at the event. Joyce BK Abbey the voice of rockets will be keeping us informed and up to date throughout each day.

As in past years, Texas Concessions will be providing food, snacks, and refreshments. Restrooms will be available on site.

There are chances of rain all weekend, as well as sun and wind so be prepared for either while you are in attendance. Sunscreen, rain gear and a chair are recommended. Also be advised that weather will play a factor in launch time availability and may cause delays. Please be patient.

Please remember that since there is public access to this event, there are registration tickets for order and those may be found on the SystemsGo website as well at this link: https://www.greateventseats.com/events.php They are FREE, but REQUIRED.

Here is the link to the live stream again. https://livestream.com/systemsgo

A map to the site is on the SystemsGo website at the following link:

http://www.systemsgo.org/events/

But just in case here is a picture of the same map:

Pictures will be available here in this blog and in Facebook albums for you to view at the end of each days launches, as well as during the day from Phil and SystemsGo on Facebook as well. Links to both our Facebook pages are below.

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow

https://www.facebook.com/SystemsGoEducation/

Here is the schedule of schools launching tomorrow.It boasts 7 schools and 22 rockets:

Thursday, May 18, 2017
School Name	# 1st Level Tsiolkovsky	# 2nd Level Oberth
Birdville CTAL Lynn Barrett	5	2
Fredericksburg High School Andrew Matthes		2
Granger High School Chaston Kubacak	1
Harleton HS Karen Brasher	1	1
Hollenstein Career & Tech Center Richard Griffith		2
Kingwood High School Louis Mascolo	5	1
New Diana High School Shawn Warden	1	1
7
Schools Launching
Totals	13	9
May 12^th Total Rockets	22

I will post each days schedules in this blog. They can also be found in original format on the SystemsGo website Events page.

Good luck to all the schools and students.

Event details will be available here each day as the event unfolds in Willow City at Hillview Ranch. Reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures, and some editorial content will also be posted at the end of day. If I get a chance to do some updates during the event each day, then I will but don’t count on it. I work recovery so I am usually busy.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org .Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited

Have a great evening. I will see you at T minus 10 tomorrow morning.

#Rockets2017 #SystemsGo #Launcher01 #FredericksburgSTEMAcademy

Fredericksburg’s STEM Academy/Rocket Program-Rockets 2017 Willow City Launch Week Update 1

Today is Tuesday, May 16, and the juniors are just days away from testing their vehicle at Stewart Ranch in Willow City at Rockets 2017. They will be launching on Thursday, but the time will be determined on site.

Deadline for construction completion was last Thursday, and unfortunately that one they missed. Recovering from that has taken diligence because they have their Flight Readiness Review (FRR) due today. This is a must or they will suffer another set back which they cannot afford this close to T time. Mr. Matthes is confident that they will be ready to launch Thursday.

Their payload is fast growth slime mold. It has been growing and spreading and is ready to be packaged into the rocket and sent into space. It is growing well here on earth, the question to be answered is how will space travel affect its growth, negatively or positively?

Here the juniors, Sergio Walla, Bryce Erwin, and Alex West, left to right, working on the rocket.

In this one Chris Calzada is cleaning excess epoxy off of a fin mount.

Harrison Spisak, is working on the Flight Readiness Review (FRR)in this last photo.

Even though the seniors’ “Baby Bird” test stand rocket will not fly at Willow City this year, they are still hard at work and progressing well on Red Bird #18 for WSMR in June. The tank has been tested successfully and the vehicles stability has been verified by NASA. This allowed for the fins to be cut so that they can be beveled for aerodynamic purposes, and then welded to the vehicle. The door panels on the forward skirt and aft skirt have been cut, and will be welded to the tank this week.

Four students accumulated 12 hours of work over the weekend fiberglassing the nose cone. According to Mr. Matthes, “Things are coming together very well, but there is still a lot to do.”

This article is the ninth in a series, new for this school year ’16/’17 of updates that will follow the Fredericksburg STEM Academy/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support, encourage, and challenge students in the program as they share their working status and accomplishments throughout the year in the program. These publications will be available for tags and re-posting.

#Rockets2017 #SystemsGo #FredricksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01

Babybird’s Successful Start Falls Just Short of Flight for Rockets 2017-Fredericksburg STEM Academy/Rocket Program-Spring Term Update #4

Hopes were that three successful tests on the new “junior test stand” nick named “Babybird” over the past weekend would result in the opportunity for the seniors in the Fredericksburg STEM Academy to fly a new Hybrid student developed rocket at Willow City. The purpose of this teststand, as highlighted in the last update, was to test a fuel grain system designed and developed by the seniors to interface with the hyportek injector and tank. Their hope was to have 3 successful tests on this past weekend.

Saturday evening, May 6, they conducted their first ever test of the Babybird. Unfortunately according to Mr. Matthes, “the containment system experienced thermal damage which tables Babybird for this year”

Babybird may not send a rocket out this year, but she is not at her end. According to Mr. Matthes, “we will continue with the testing of it…The Baby bird still is important research that can be utilized by SystemsGo to increase the rigor of the Oberth level of the program to include motor design.”

Mr. Matthes congratulates the class on their hard work and efforts, “Burn looks great though… well designed propulsion. Very curious to see the data which looked promising at a glance. Great job FHS Engineering Class of 2017!”

This article is the eighth in a series, new for this school year ’16/’17 of updates that will follow the Fredericksburg STEM Academy/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support, encourage, and challenge students in the program as they share their working status and accomplishments throughout the year in the program. These publications will be available for tags and re-posting.

#Rockets2017 #SystemsGo #FredericksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01

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