Tag: Alamo Heights High School

Tuesday, T-1 Briefing and Set up Day at WSMR and Wednesday Schedules

SystemsGo and the participating schools had a productive first day at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) today. They started the day with the T-1 Briefing, which included several presentations by WSMR staff on all they do to make these launches possible. It was an educational and informative session.

WSMR personnel made introductions so all involved would know who they are and who to contact for help from the base. At the end, Scott Netherland introduced the SystemsGo team and specified their roles with the organization. We finished around 11:00 and headed out to West Center 50 launch site(WC50).

All equipment and rockets had to be set up and completed to meet the Wednesday testing schedule. Everything was eventually finished by 8:00 p.m. It was a very productive day albeit a little long and quite hot. It was a bit of a “Murphy’s Law kind of day”.

The first incident was our truck running out of diesel about 6 miles from the launch site. Gary, one of our range specialists, came and saved the day for us. Then the fill and fire system wouldn’t work correctly, only to discover that it was a bit of human error not system error. We were able to find humor and relief in the fact that it was actually all ok. One of the generators ran out of fuel as well. The last thing for the day was a screw on the rail that prevented the loading of the Fredericksburg rocket and much maneuvering had to be done to fix both the rail and the rocket lugs to get it loaded so we could all finally go home for the evening. There were other minor things, but it was all things that could be fixed.

Tomorrow will be a super early morning for all of us. Teams launching and SystemsGo personnel will be headed out to WC50 at 2:30 a.m. And those going to watch the launches from Mission Control will be heading out at 3:30 a.m. to meet our rep at the main gate by 4:30 a.m.

6:00 a.m. Fredericksburg High School
7:30 a.m. Union Grove High School
9:00 a.m. Alamo Heights High School

If it is a perfect day and all goes well with no exceptions with each launch, then the tests should be complete by 12:00 p.m. Realistically, this is a very tight launch sequence with little to no room for errors. If we do not get all three launches tomorrow, then there will be four launches on Thursday. Friday has now been canceled as WSMR has other high priority missions that need the range, so there is no longer a back up day.

Therefore, let us all hope and pray for the best for each school so that they may have a successful launch tomorrow and that all schedules hold true.

Here is the current preview of the launches scheduled for Thursday. Tomorrow’s blog will have a final schedule for the day based on Wednesday’s test success.

Thursday launch order: Anahuac, Booker T. Washington (1), Booker T. Washington (2)
Event details will continue to be available here. I will provide more information each morning as to how the schedule and other event details will progress for that day and how launches went for the schools testing that 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.

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.

Fredericksburg STEM Academy/Rocket Program-Launch Report for Rockets 2017 WSMR Launch Week Red Bird #18 Update

Red Bird #18 is scheduled for testing at White Sands Missile Range(WSMR) next Wednesday, June 28. This marks the last big event for Rockets 2017 and the Fredericksburg STEM Academy for this season.

These are the Goddard level rockets, which are the culmination of all the skills the students have learned throughout their years in the STEM program. This marks the final senior project for those schools that participate in this level of the SystemsGo program.

According to team member, Sterling Weatherford, “We are finishing up our rocket production, with integration and final testing before we head off to White Sands.”

Mr. Matthes reports that welding on the vehicle is complete and it is together. Below is a pictures of the class with the vehicle at SRM Manufacturing, one of the outsource businesses they contracted for help with welding. In order  left to right the students are Jesse Cedillo, Colby Marthaller, Ricky Robles, Langston James, Nathan Bain, Chase Ottmers, Hannah Boubel, Joseph Sanchez, and Sterling Weatherford.

Other members of the group not pictured here are David Becker, Drew McDonald, Matthew Dulaney, Corbin Styles,  Josh Treibs,  Payton Carroll, Cody Pruett, Levi Crawford, and Ian Kendrick.

The students report that they are putting finishing touches on the nosecone, including sanding and a gel coat to create a smooth finished surface. They will be installing the complete motor system in to the rocket today, Wednesday, June 21.

They had been working on integrating the recovery, propulsion and fuel grain systems into the vehicle.  All parts have been fit tested for the integration. Recovery, avionics, and the payload have since been successfully installed.

They are finishing the assembly of the fuel grain including an ablative that the students have chosen to add to the post combustion portion,  afterwhich they can install the fuel grain and the rest of the propulsion system into the rocket.

 Here one of the students shows the injection valve and injector bell arrangement.

Here is a picture of Drew McDonald, Ricky Robles, and Jesse Cedillo earlier when they were mixing fuel for the second attempt at the fuel grain.

Their final actions will be to test the black powder charges for the recovery system and then they will be ready to move the rocket to WSMR for their full vehicle launch testing.

“We are extremely excited to test our rocket at the upcoming White Sands Missile Range launches,” Sterling reported.

Monday evening they met to discuss  travel plans and trip expectations.

Launches are scheduled for June 28 through June 30. The group will travel out to WSMR on Monday, June 26, and back home again on Saturday, July 1.

There are 5 schools scheduled to launch 6  rockets. These schools include:

  • Alamo Heights (1)
  • Anahuac (1)
  • Booker T. Washington ( 2)
  • Fredericksburg (1)
  • Union Grove (1)

This year is unique in that the Army has some classified tests scheduled that will slightly overlap SystemsGo’s air space on both June 28th and June 30th. This could delay start on Wednesday, and it has already been set to 0700.  The  hope is that all launches will be complete by Thursday afternoon so that Friday will not be needed since another high priority group will be needing that day as a back up day as well. SystemsGo will travel home Friday if this can be accomplished instead of one day later on Saturday.

The current launch schedule is as follows:

  • Monday, Jun 25th             Travel Day
  • Tuesday, Jun 26th             T-1 and Site Set up/Rocket Prep at WC-50
  • Wednesday, Jun 27th       Launch Day One (Three Rockets – Fredericksburg, Union Grove, Alamo Heights)
  • Thursday, Jun 28th           Launch Day Two (Three Rockets – Anahuac, Booker T. #1, Booker T. #2)
  • Friday, Jun 29th                Contingency Day/Travel Day
  • Saturday, Jun 30th            Travel Day

Both the Junior and senior groups presented there projects and made reports on June 1st as their final exam for the year. Below is the junior group after their presentation.

This article is the eleventh in a series, new for this school year ’16/’17 of updates that have followed 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.

Subsequent updates will continue to follow the Senior/Graduates and the progress of the Red Bird #18 rocket after launch at WSMR next week.

Today is 5 days out until the Red Bird #18 group leaves for WSMR. Watch this blog next week for information and reports on this and all the schools’ launches at  White Sands Missile Range.

 This was presented to the Red Bird #18 group after their June 1 end of year presentation. The sentiment still holds as we congratulate this group of graduates on their accomplishments and the achievement of finishing their rocket. Good luck at WSMR!

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.

#Rockets2017 #SystemsGo #FredricksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01

 

 

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.

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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 15th 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

Friday, SystemsGo’s Rockets 2016 Officially Ends as Team Travels Home and Transitions into Next Year Preps

At 7:30 a.m.  this morning, the SystemsGo team and Fredericksburg students traveled home from White Sands Missile Range, arriving safely in Fredericksburg around 5:30 p.m.

WSMR marks the end of another successful year with launches in Houston, Willow City included. The group helped test 90 Tchaikovsky and Oberth rockets and 7 Goddard level rockets for the Rockets 2016 season.

Now the volunteer staff returns to their daily lives and the SystemsGo team enjoys a much needed break before continuing with more schools, students and rockets. It won’t be long and the “launch season” will be back again with Rockets 2017. This coming season will start a little earlier with launches in April for the new New Mexico schools that will be coming online. It should prove to be an exciting year.

For now, SystemsGo transitions back to helping schools and teachers implement this STEM based program so that more students can participate in this system of learning.

That concludes Friday’s WSMR Rocket update.

www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited. SystemsGo is a Texas-based STEM curriculum program.

Team photo includes from left to right, (SystemsGo founder), Cade Ottmers, Brian Heffner, Josh Hampton, Chelsea Burow, Gene Garrett, Steve Burow, Randy Kuhlmann, Robert Dever, and Andrew Matthes (FHS STEM program instructor).

Thursday, Final WSMR Launch Day

Today was the final day of testing at WSMR for SystemsGo student programs. Fredericksburg was the only official launch scheduled, with two remaining test times for any retests needed. Unfortunately it was a sad day for Fredericksburg as well. Their rocket had ignition but the injector failed therefore it never left the pad.

At first they were going to allow them a second test time at 12:30 p.m. but after inspection it was determined that they did not have enough spare components to repair the vehicle and so the second test was scrubbed.

At that point the SystemsGo team, Fredericksburg students and WSMR personnel cleaned up West Center 50 and left, officially ending our White Sands Missile Range launch operations.

This evening the team gets some much-needed rest time before returning to Fredericksburg. Except for Chelsea and Steve they are returning to Lubbock this evening and then to Fredericksburg on Friday evening. The team and the Fredericksburg students spent the afternoon seeing the New Mexico Museum of Air and Space and the White Sands National Monument, where they met the challenge of climbing and sliding down the dunes.

Tomorrow is back to Texas and a long Fourth of July Holiday weekend.

There were four out of seven rockets that left the rail this year. Seven out of seven would have been even better but this is still a good end to the season. The thing to bear in mind is that with all these tests whether they leave the rail or not there is always and element of further knowledge to be obtained from what transpired with each vehicle. That deducing, understanding and learning from both what went right and what went wrong whether the vehicle launched of not, and all the education and skills each student learned to get it to this point is the true important lesson.

Thank you so much to White Sands Missile Range for all the support, man power, time, education, entertainment, information and fun you provided in order for SystemsGo and these four schools to come out and test their vehicles. Your continued support in this education of future generations is highly appreciated.

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.

The picture on this blog piece is of the Fredericksburg rocket team this morning prior to their vehicle test. It was provided by team member Zane Brown. Team members are from left to right: Katie Habecker, Link Millard, Dorian Jones, Garrett Ottmers, Nathan Weatherford, Alex Scudder, Zane Brown, and teacher, Andrew Matthes.

Late Update to Wednesday, Launch Day 2 at WSMR

This is just a quick update to my earlier post. Booker T Washington has decided not to go for a retest on either of their failed rockets today. That means Fredericksburg is tomorrow’s only attempted launch test. It’s T time is 8:30 a.m.

Wednesday, Launch Day 2 at WSMR

The Anahuac rocket left the rail this year at 8:36 a.m. It traveled 171 meters (appx. 576.27’).  The Estes motor blew out at ignition as the rocket started its lift off. This caused the rocket to spiral upward and eventually nose over and continue into the range a few hundred yards to the right of the launch rail, digging a crater and leaving dust for some distance. The Anahuac teachers were prepared and blew party horns to celebrate as soon as the vehicle came to rest. Congratulations Anahuac on your first successful launch!!!!!

The next two T times were both held by Booker T Washington High School. Both of these rockets were carrying a payload consisting of a PVC container with space pebbles that they were testing to see how they would react upon reentry to the earth’s surface.

Unfortunately it was not a good day for Booker T. They achieved success in making it to the pad, but flight was not to be. Neither vehicle left the pad.

On the 11:00 a.m. test of Golden 5 the Junior class rocket, the valve froze shut not allowing the Nitrous Oxide to mix with the fuel at ignition resulting in a small puff of smoke and a misfire.

The 2:15 p.m. test of their Senior class rocket, failed due to a fault in the ignition wire  which resulted in no ignition and the system venting out the Nitrous. There is no word at this time as to whether either vehicle will be able to retest in one of tomorrow’s two available retest T’s. Even if one of the vehicles can be repaired in time there may not be more Nitrous available for them to conduct any additional testing.

At this time, the 8:30 a.m. T time is scheduled for Fredericksburg’s Red Bird #17 rocket. If no other retesting occurs, then the mission will be complete, then clean up and pack up will end the day for SystemsGo, students, and WSMR personnel.

Good luck to Fredericksburg and tomorrow and safe travels to all schools heading home.

Tomorrow’s test schedule is as follows:

  • 8:30 a.m. Fredericksburg
  • 11:00 a.m. Retest (1)
  • 2:00 p.m. Retest (2)

Event details will continue to be available here. I will provide more information each morning as to how the schedule and other event details will progress for that day and how launches went for the schools testing that 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.

The picture was provided by parent, Teresa Moore, of the Anahuac High School Rocket team after their launch here at WSMR. Students pictured are (not in order) Anne-Marie Henry, Madalyn Orozco, Maria Magana, Kaitelynn Innerarity, Mason Duhon, Shon Patton, Dante Nguyen, Beau Cendejas, Austin Hodges, Meghan Thomas, Zack Rose, and Caleb Moore.

Tuesay, First Launch Day at WSMR

Today was a great success for the SystemsGo program as they met and/ or exceeded three T times with three rockets off the rails. The action started off well with a T time of 8:30 a.m. for Alamo Heights Heights School. They began the day with their smaller rocket built for extra height. It left the rail well, had a beautiful flight and reached a total height of 10086′. At this point the paper phenolic cover around the fuel grain burned off causing the body tube to melt through developing a hole with a side burn after which it rolled over and returned to the range in a ballistic fall. Reports from WSMR have it plugged into the range 970′ from the launch site in lawn dart fashion. This was not totally unexpected since a recovery system was not part of the vehicle.

The 11:00 a.m. T time for Union Grove’s launch meant that SystemsGo had to load the vehicle on the rail, fill and be ready to fire within two and a half hours. This was met and exceeded as their rocket left the rail at 10:59. The rocket had a great lift off but not far into the flight, the engine case blew apart dumping the motor and fuel grain. Preliminary reports are that the nozzle came off causing engine explosion. Their nose cone and shoot deployed, but the shoot did not open. Their max height was 600′.  This was actually the first time that Union Grove High School has left the rail in what is now their third attempt at WSMR. This is a great triumph for them. They are now their school’s first flight at WSMR.  Great job, Union Grove students.

Alamo Heights had a second rocket launch today with a T time of 2:00 p.m. SystemsGo did great work and exceeded this sending them off the rail at 1:48. This rocket only made 180′ after clearing the rail. The same paper phenolic fuel grain cover caused a hole to melt through the rocket at which point it began tumbling end over end back to the range.

Congratulations to both schools, at having achieved getting a rocket off the rail at WSMR. Post Flight Analysis on all these vehicles should prove to be enlightening and educational.

Tomorrow’s schedule is tentative because at this point the scheduled schools’ rockets are not pad ready. They are all going out to the range at 5:00 a.m. to complete work on them and hopefully keep the tight schedule for the day. The following is the schedule at this time:

Wednesday launch order:

  • 8:30 a.m. Anahuac
  • 11:00 a.m. Booker T. Washington (1)
  • 2:00 p.m. Booker T. Washington (2)

Event details will continue to be available here. I will provide more information each morning as to how the schedule and other event details will progress for that day and how launches went for the schools testing that 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.

The picture was provided by parent, Lori Davis of the Union Grove High School Rocket team after their launch here at WSMR.

Monday, T-1 Briefing and Set up Day at WSMR Results in Slight Schedule Change

SystemsGo and the participating schools had a productive first day at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) today. They started the day with the T-1 Briefing. This is basically WSMR rules and regulations for the range. It covers all basic information such as weather conditions, wind speeds, airspace schedules and logistics.

WSMR personnel made introductions so all involved would know who they are and who to contact for help from the base. After the T-1 brief they teased that it was the “dumbed down” version for civilians. At the end Scott Netherland introduced the SystemsGo team and specified their roles with the organization.

By 10:30 they were headed down range to West Center 50 launch site. This is where the schools, SystemsGo, and WSMR personnel spent the afternoon getting ready for tomorrow’s launches. All equipment and rockets had to be set up and completed to meet the Tuesday testing schedule. Everything went well and it was a very productive day albeit a little long and quite hot.

Union Grove had a small problem with their vehicle that kept it from passing the pressure tests so in order to be sure that the schedule would stay on course tomorrow, they moved  Alamo Height’s smaller rocket into the first launch window for tomorrow morning, because they had to have one on the rail and ready tonight to keep the schedule. Union was able to fix their problem and pass the second round of pressure tests so they will resume as the second launch in the morning.

Because of this tomorrow launch schedule is as follows:

  • 8:30 a.m. Alamo Heights High School (1)
  • 11:00 a.m. Union Grove High School
  • 3:00 p.m. Alamo Heights High School (2)

Due to the 8:30 T time tomorrow will be an early day for SystemsGo team and schools. They will be leaving for the range by 5:30 a.m. Alamo Heights parents going to Range Control to view the launches will be leaving at 6:15 a.m. Subsequently parents with Union Grove will be heading to Range Control by 9:00 a.m.

If it is a perfect day and all goes well with no exceptions with each launch, then the tests should be complete by 3:00 p.m. Realistically this is a very tight launch sequence with little to no room for errors. As long as each rocket that loads the rail leaves without any issues at ignition this schedule will hold and therefore the next days will follow as currently scheduled. If one vehicle has to be taken down from the rail then the next launch window will be lost and the schedule will have to shift.

Therefore let us all hope and pray for the best for each school so that they may have a successful launch tomorrow and that all schedules hold true.

Here is the current preview of the launches scheduled for Wednesday. Tomorrow’s blog will have a final schedule for the day based on Tuesday’s test success.

  • Wednesday launch order: Anahuac, Booker T. Washington (1), Booker T. Washington (2)

Event details will continue to be available here. I will provide more information each morning as to how the schedule and other event details will progress for that day and how launches went for the schools testing that 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.