Today marked the final day of the Goddard Teacher Training class. Unfortunately for me, but better for all of them, class was done by the time my lunch came around and I entered the class. Phil Houseal, was packing up his video equipment, Rebekah was packing up snacks, and coffee, and the teachers were headed out to find home again.
Mr. Matthes and I spoke briefly about the day. They spent the morning discussing Stability, and Propulsion. At the end of their time, Rebak Hyatt, spoke about the Philosophies behind rocketry.
It was my impression from the teachers that they all had a very informative and fun week, delving into the Goddard program.
July 19-23, four schools will train on the Tsiolkovsky level at Artesia Administration Building in Artesia, New Mexico. Canon City High School from Colorado, and Logan, Elida, and Animas High Schools all from New Mexico will all train with Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt. These classes are designed for Sophomore, Junior and Senior grade students whose projects are generally one pound/one mile rockets for launch at one of the spring launches.
The feature picture for today’s short article is Brazoswood’s Goddard rocket from this year. I thought it a fitting way to end the week.
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.
Anatomy of a Rocket was the continued subject today in Goddard class. Yesterday encompassed the aft end of the vehicle, where as today it was the forward section. Concentrations on Nosecones, Recovery, Payload and Fins were primary discussions, as per Mr. Matthes. Interestingly, one of those components does not belong on the forward section of a rocket. I do believe that would be a slight design flaw. This leads me to believe that it was obviously the end of the aft section before beginning the forward section. No pun intended.
Earlier in the day during the discussion on nosecones, the group took a short field trip to the FHS Engineering storage room. Here they looked at various examples of nosecones that FHS has used on past rockets.
Chris McLeod, told me about this part of the day. He stated that I had missed the best part, and that he knew it was hard to get good pictures of them working on the screen. He then supplied the picture from this field trip, and I used it as the feature for this article. Thank you, Chris!
When I entered the discussion today, they were at the end of examples of chute configurations and deployment options. Below is what greeted me on the screen. They had already come to the consensus that option C was what they were going to include in their diagram.
Recovery had been a big part of the discussion earlier and Chris Madsen, NASA JSC, had conferenced in to aid in this conversation.
There was still some discussions about tethering, reefing, and chording. Mr. Matthes, brought up a chute drawing from earlier in the day to discuss more options and ideas on how to best accomplish these necessities.
Placement of the main and drogue chutes in reference to the avionics and electronics bay, and an antenna system for tracking, recovery and telemetry of the rocket were discussed. The antenna is being implemented since radar tracking is not always a reliable medium. Having this antenna onboard will aid in these areas supplying a secondary system instead of just the radar. Attaching this antenna so that it stays intact during flight and chute deployment seemed to be the more difficult part of adding it to the design.
At this point, the class transitioned to the screen calling on a new volunteer to draw the forward section of their vehicle. Michael Dodson, the teacher from Lovington High School in New Mexico, took on this task.
First they listed the main components that needed to be included:
Just like Wednesday, the drawing kept evolving as they discussed what parts were needed and where their placement would be. Payload was added next. As per what the actual payload would be, I did not hear that answer. Although, 5 pounds of Playdough was mentioned as an option. At the Tsiolkovsky and Oberth levels it has been used, although not 5 pounds.
Playdough is not appropriate as a payload at the Goddard level. It was mentioned by the group as a kind of inside joke and therefore mentioned here to get the attention of certain individuals. You know who you are. We have to lighten the technical mood and have a little fun.
Here the payload compartment has been added to the diagram.
As the thought process stalled, Mr. Matthes, chided the teachers about having a deadline of 5 pm. tomorrow to complete their rocket. He razzed them about not putting in after hours time like the high school students do, to get the work done. During this time Mr. Dodsen added a frontal view of the recovery compartment to the drawing.
Doug Kimbrell and Doug Underwood sat at the back offering suggestions to the class and combing through material on the computer for ideas.
The class continued their brainstorming as I slipped out again for the day, my 40 minutes of class at it’s end.
Until tomorrow, if you are not dreaming of designing, building, launching and chasing rockets, you obviously have not hung out with this crew enough!
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.
Today’s lesson was concerning the Anatomy of a Rocket. Quite honestly this was not a good class to come into the middle of and expect to keep up.
The best example I can give of how this went is as follows. My family often plays a game at holidays, we call “Pass Around Pictionary.” To sum it up, each person has a piece of paper on which they draw a picture, then fold the paper to hide the picture, and then they pass it to the next person to describe the picture in words. This process continues going back and forth from picture to words each time the paper is passed, and each person can only see what the person before them drew or wrote and must describe using the opposite action.
Now fast forward to today. I walk into a high level rocket training class just as the main lecture on how to design these vehicles has ended, and a student/teacher is selected to go to the board and draw/design a rocket with the help of his classmates. Not only are they drawing this vehicle as they go along, they are problem solving, designing, discussing parameters and components, and redrawing as the thought process changes and develops.
Here Conner Gorman from BCTAL steps up to the screen, at Mr. Matthes’ prodding for a volunteer, and Rhonda Baker, suggests that it is someone else’s time as she has already done board time earlier in the day.
The drawing began simple enough so I tried to draw my own copy picture as they went along. Their board allowed for erasing and changing as they went along. I brought a notebook and an INK pen to class today. It worked well the last two days, but failed me miserably today. I finally gave up on trying to complete the drawing, and went to listing components that I knew were part of a rocket. Needless to say I went from drawing to writing, watching as their diagram continued to evolve.
Incidentally, here is what my drawing and notes looked like.
You engineers, teachers and people who really know all this stuff, you can stop laughing now.
This too had it’s downfalls, because even though I know a lot of the pieces that go into a rocket, it is mostly the big stuff, like nose cone, tank, fins and fuel grain, and some of the tiny things like O-rings, valves, nuts, bolts, etc.
We were now discussing all the large, small, tiny, unknown and very necessary items. Several factors that effect each of them, their sizes, configurations, placement possibilities, etc. Not to mention the abbreviations, acronyms, and formulas that were being used as descriptors. I definitely need to take this class from beginning to end!!!
Here, Mr. Gorman almost appears to look like I felt. Although for him, it was probably just a thinking process moment.
One thing is for sure, these teachers were being held to the same standard or higher that the high school students in the program are and they were having to perform, just as they will be directing their future students to do. They were designing and developing a diagram of a rocket that they could look back on later as a working example. Each one was analyzing the possibilities and determining the best, what kind, why that one, and how of it all.
They were thinking through things like injector ports, vents, nozzles, electronics bays and their placements on the vehicles and determining if the design was good. Contemplating if they might need to reach that component later and how they would?
The drawing developed, morphed, changed and was redrawn as questions were put forth and answered. It was amazing to be a part of, but nearly impossible to take notes on and keep track.
Even these pictures really do not do the material or the participation of the working minds, justice. I cannot wait to see where they are tomorrow! Here are two more that were part of their discussion. I will let you fill in the captions for these.
We did have a few new faces today. SystemsGo Executive Director, Scott Netherland; Board President, Doug Kimbrell; and past graduate of the program, Robert Sanchez were all in attendance. At the time that I was there, Scott and Doug were observing. Robert said he was fixing one of the school’s 3D printers so that he could use it to fix the other 3D printer.
Until tomorrow, if you are not dreaming of designing, building, launching and chasing rockets, you obviously have not hung out with this crew enough!
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.
Teachers and others in the program probably already know this, but it was news to me. That was either because I have just missed it in conversation before today, or the fact just never came up. Maybe I should have known, but then I am not a teacher, just a crazy, addicted volunteer that loves and supports the program. The technical term is Rocket Junky! What didn’t I know, well the fact that they only do the Goddard level training every four years!!!!!
Doug Underwood, actually gave me that piece of information today. He is seen here with his materials laid out as the lecture resumes after their lunch break.
Not all schools participate in this level of the program. One reason is because these vehicles are expensive to build. It also requires extra travel for the students and schools, and the only window for launch is a month after the students have graduated and school has dismissed. Most schools stay at the Tsiolkovsky and Oberth levels. Therefore training every year is not always necessary or cost effective. That is my take on the why. Of course, SystemsGo may have more specific reasons for their why.
Either way, at first I was stunned and wondered, how can that be? But, knowing just what I do know, taking the things I have mentioned into account and the fact that not every school that does the Goddard program comes to WSMR to launch every year, it could be made sense of rather quickly.
Today the Goddard class was training on Propulsion. Engineering teacher, Andrew Matthes was manning the presentations, leading the discussions and taking questions again.
Here are a few things I heard in my 30 minutes in class today. Do not expect these session to be perfect and totally technically on because, I am not an engineer, though if I could go back and do this stuff I would. I am just a writer and volunteer for the program that loves to soak up all that I can like a sponge and throw it out there for the many more rocket junkies like me, including other students, teachers, rocket followers, etc. so that we may all have a piece of the action and involvement. First and foremost I love to bring more light to the program in any way I can. And have some fun with all I see, hear and learn.
That being said, here is my bit of today’s lessons. There was much discussion about the fuel grain and how it reacts with Nitrous and Oxygen. Specifically how the vapor off the surface of the fuel grain burns with the oxidizer to create combustion. Hot expanding gasses were a topic at this point, which brought forth a quote about hot gasses from the movie, October Sky!
I tried to locate the exact quote, and it did speak about the necessity of the nozzle in the design and how it directs the flow of hot gasses. Of course the comments in the movie went south after hot gasses.
The class went on to discuss fuel grain flow designs. The first of which is pictured here:
This lead to discussions about expansion within the fuel grain, as well as pressure changes, flow rate changes and various other effects as it burns. One such example that is likely with a single port is that the port gets larger as it burns. This changes the Mass Flow Rate also causing the DOF to get larger.
Another comment mentioned was that with only one port, the expansion creates two separate sides to the fuel grain, kind of like two separate pieces of wood burning, which also changes the potential of the propulsion.
According to some in the class, “Two sticks burn better than one!” Chris McLeod, said that I definitely needed to include that comment in today’s blog, so there you have it.
The anatomy of fuel grains and what works well and does not,
as well as nozzle designs were also touched on while I was present, as seen in the pictures shown above and below.
At the beginning of class the internet was down. Apparently it is an intermittent problem. Mr. Matthes made a call and it restored quickly. Jerry, the FISD, IT guy stopped by to check. He said the server had actual gone off momentarily. Some of you might remember him from Willow City a few years back. He brought his drones out to help aide recovery.
Yesterday, someone commented that they wanted to see who else was in attendance besides, Chris McLeod, so here maybe you can make out a few more people. Rhonda Baker is one you might know.
SystemsGo Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt was there when I first arrived, but left quickly to address some issues back at the office.
The same seven teachers were present for training again today. As previously noted they are from Birdville Career and Tech Center, RL Turner, Union Grove, Brazoswood, Booker T Washington, and Jal High Schools.
Today, most of the photos are already included, but I thought this one could be of some interest since the discussion is Goddard rockets. It is the aft end of an old Goddard vehicle. Not a clue if it belongs to a FHS Red Bird or some other school, but it is a prime example of how success often comes to you in pieces.
Until tomorrow, if you are not dreaming of rockets, you obviously have not hung out with this crew enough!
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.
Goddard training began today with FHS Engineer teacher, Andrew Matthes directing the class.
SystemsGo Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt, sitting in the back where she was able to add in information or examples as needed. SystemsGo Regional Director, Doug Underwood was also in attendance.
Seven teachers were present for training. Most were from schools around Texas including Birdville Career and Tech Center, RL Turner, Union Grove, Brazoswood, and Booker T Washington High Schools, and one from Jal High School in New Mexico.
I watched and listen for about 40 minutes today, during which, Chris Madsen, NASA JSC, Orion Entry GN&C Systems Manager skyped in to present The SystemsGo Goddard 6-DOF Inputs session of the training.
As I listened to discussions including center of mass, Roll, Yall and Pitch, metric and standard measurement uses, weight balance across the vehicle, just to mention a small fraction of the information being presented, I was really wishing I had brought a folder for notes and not just a camera. I definitely wish I could have stayed for the full presentation as this program and all they do, never ceases to amaze and fascinate me.
Here are a few more pics. Not too much different, but I will check in on them again tomorrow to see if there is more of interest to report.
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.
Rockets 2021 has barely ended as the Team and students returned home from launches at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, on June 27th, and July already starts a new year.
Rockets 2022 begins with SystemsGo Teacher Training for the 2021/2022 school year. 22 Schools from Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado will be participating in training on all levels of the program at locations in both Texas and New Mexico.
July 12-16 kicks off these educational events at the Goddard level. FHS Program teacher, Andrew Matthes, will conduct this event in the Fredericksburg High School Engineering Department classroom.
Five teachers from Texas high schools, including Birdville Career and Tech Center, RL Turner, Union Grove, Brazoswood, and Booker T Washington High Schools, and one from Jal High School in New Mexico will attend and secure certification to teach the curriculum at their respective schools this fall. This first week of training encompasses the senior level rockets which launch at White Sands Missile Range. It is the final and highest level of the program. These vehicles are designed to reach 50,000 feet.
July 19-23, four schools will train on the Tsiolkovsky level at Artesia Administration Building in Artesia, New Mexico. Canon City High School from Colorado, and Logan, Elida, and Animas High Schools all from New Mexico will all train with Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt. These classes are designed for Sophomore, Junior and Senior grade students whose projects are generally one pound/one mile rockets for launch at one of the spring launches.
The following weekend, July 24-25, two teachers will train on the Oberth level also at the Artesia Administration Building in Artesia, New Mexico. One is from the West Texas school of Fabens and the other from Canon City in Colorado. Regional Coordinator, Doug Underwood, will conduct these trainings. July 31- August 1 he will be in Fredericksburg training Texas teachers on this same level. Hollenstein, Georgetown and McGregor High Schools will be in attendance in Fredericksburg. This level teaches students in the Junior and Senior years on the Transonic rockets, which are designed to break the speed of sound.
The next week will be back at Fredericksburg High School, where Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt continues training teachers on the Tsiolkovsky level of rockets. The Texas schools of Summer Creek, Hollenstein, Friendswood, Atascocita, Galena Park, Georgetown, and McGregor will attend this session in Fredericksburg.
The first week in August, PD Hyatt will also be conducting webinars for teachers needing the Intro to Engineering training. These teachers generally work with eighth and ninth graders just starting in the program, which teaches the Research Design and Development Loop as well as the history and basics of rocketry. These are two hour working web trainings that are scheduled as needed. Currently there is only one on Wednesday, August 4th, but a second may be added later.
Covid caused many schools and teachers to drop the program last year. Fortunately, many are returning this year and at least five new schools have been added. SystemsGo is glad to see this uptick in the program.
The more schools and teachers mean many more students involved, and with that many more potential career paths in the STEM fields.
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.
Three schools tested rockets at White Sands Missile Range today. Brazoswood, Alamo Heights and Union Grove comprised that list. All three rockets left the rail. Some flights were not optimal but they were off the rail.
The big winner of the day, was first up, Brazoswood High School. They had a slow lift off but a good burn, eventually picking up speed and altitude for a beautiful flight, sailing off the rail. They flew to a considerable height and distance before landing somewhere down range. Unfortunately, WSMR, was not able to lock on radar due to technical issues and lost it before impact. They are actively looking for it but had not located it by the time we called mission complete for the day.
Visual estimates by some WSMR personnel on the ground, put it over 30,000 feet. Our WSMR photographer, Mike says he thinks it is the best flight since Fredericksburg High School’s record of 36,000′. He has seen every launch the program has made over the past 22 years. Bare in mind this is only speculation at this point.
Unfortunately we will have to wait on actual information until they find the rocket. Either way it was an awesome flight! Congratulations Brazoswood and Chris McLeod, their teacher. Great first time up, as their new instructor. The opening picture for this blog today is the Brazoswood rocket at Stage 2 on Friday.
Alamo Heights was the second launch. They had problems with leaks in their Nitrous fill lines. Several attempts were made by SystemsGo personnel to correct this but it continued to fail. One of the students from the team came in and continued work and was able to correct the issue.
At 12:31 the vehicle went for launch. It did ignite, but then barely left the rail. It lost the nosecone right after lift off, but then laid over and flew horizontally, nose diving into the ground about 100 yards down the road from the pad where the altimeter bay housing dug into the ground. The impact sent the body tube away where it landed across the road another 30′ plus feet away.
This vehicle was the only and the easiest recovery of the day. Fortunately there was only minimal damage to the new launch rail. Alamo Heights was the first test for this new rail.
Union Grove was the third and final launch of the day. They made the call to continue launch even though SystemsGo could not confirm that the altimeter was armed and active. This meant no deployment of their recovery system. At this point this was an allowable concession in order to fly.
At 2:15 they filled and went for launch. They lifted off nicely but nosed over and continued down range flying horizontally instead of up. The rocket eventually dove into the ground quite a distance away. A chute with only the nosecone attached was seen deploying as it hit. It tunneled across the ground for a while before it too was lost. Even though several on the ground were able to follow it to impact, WSMR has still not located and recovered it. The search will be ongoing.
Deputy Test Center Commander, Jerry Tyree, from White Sands Missile Range, visited the launch site today. He brought family along to show them what we do here. It was a treat for SystemsGo staff, students and teachers whom he visited with at both locations.
Mission was called complete by WSMR at 5:16 p.m. today! This officially ended the Rockets 2021 season.
Tomorrow the SystemsGo team will be traveling home again. Some of the younger pad crew are staying around to see some of the sites in the area, including the White Sands Monument.
Training for this year’s new rocket teachers in the program will take place the last three weeks in July.
We will see you again next year for the Texas Rocket Trail 2022. In the upcoming year watch for interesting high lights from the program.
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 SystemsGo team and schools headed out at 6:30 am. Friday morning, with their first stop as Alamogordo High School. They set up under a pavilion next to the athletic department, where they completed Stage 2 checks for each rocket. This was a new experience for the group since this activity usually takes place under tents on the range.
Career Technical Education Coordinator, Manny Klaasen, was there point of contact and support at the school. Ironically, she is a native Texan from the Dallas area. She moved to New Mexico 20 years ago to teach at the college on base at WSMR, and then later took a teaching job in town at AHS. AHS is a participant in the SystemsGo program, but still in the early stages, and in need of a new teacher for the program. There current one left during Covid. She is super excited to see this level of the program and host the Stage 2 event.
At 10:30 am. the set up crew headed out to ABC-1 to begin preparations for tomorrow’s launches. Only SystemsGo pad crews went at this time to set up the pad, rails, fill and fire system, and all other pertinent equipment for launches. They were met and assisted by several WSMR range personnel.
A quick correction to my previous posts is that Booker T Washington High School, actually aborted last week, so that only leaves three high schools here at WSMR. Those include, Alamo Heights, Union Grove, and Brazoswood. All three completed Stage 2 checks and loaded up to go down range by 2:15 pm. They were lead in by the rest of the SystemsGo Team from Stage 2, and met at the Tula Gate by WSMR personnel. At the site they underwent Stage 3 checks and were loaded with charges for launch.
Brazosport and Alamo Heights were the first to complete all checks. Because of this the new launch order for Saturday is as follows:
Brazosport
Alamo Heights
Union Grove
The first two were loaded on the rails this evening before the group left for the day. SystemsGo now has two launch rails and both will be in operation tomorrow. A rocket was loaded onto each and then they will be tested in sequence with only time out for safety; including the return of the launch team as they will be required to evacuate during each launch; and swapping gas and electrical connections between the rails.
WSMR pushed launches to Saturday only. With only three rockets this should not be a problem. Although the Covid restrictions do pose some extra time issues.
Launches are to commence at 8:00 am. Saturday morning. All SystemsGo personnel and schools will be headed out to the range at 5:00 am.
Brazoswood High School is first to launch and Alamo Heights is next on the second rail. After both launches, WSMR personnel will attempt to locate and retrieve the rockets for the students while the third rocket is loaded onto the rail. After the third launch we will be mission complete and pack all equipment. The first two schools may leave after their rocket has been returned to them, or WSMR has determined that it cannot be returned at this time.
Realistically, this is a very tight launch sequence with little to no room for errors. As we know, errors can and do occasionally happen and can cause severe delays in the launch schedule and hinder time availability.
If we do not get all three launches done tomorrow, then they will have to abort because we no longer have Sunday time slots as allowed by WSMR.
We also had two visitors from Space Port America here today to observe so they could get a more realistic idea of what the SystemsGo program does, it’s capabilities and also it’s necessities for launches. In attendance were, Chas Miller, Space Port Engineer, and Susan Raitt, Business Development. They observed at both Stage 2 in town and ABC-1 on the range.
Andy Berger, from ESRA, Experimental Sounding Rocket Association, was also in attendance. He is from the Houston area. He helps plan and host rocket competitions designed to further promote rocketry and aerospace challenges.
The team and schools finally left the range and arrived back in Alamogordo for dinner, food shopping for tomorrow, and much needed showers and rest at around 8:00 pm.
Best of luck to all schools so that they may have a successful launches tomorrow.
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 SystemsGo team left Fredericksburg at in two shifts this morning headed to White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico. The last group arrived in Alamogordo at about 5:30 pm. after a late start due to a bad tire on the van. Luckily Patrick Krauskopf at 7 Day Tire was able to replace it get us on the way by 9:00 am.
The early crew, Scott Netherland and Rebekah Hyatt, met with, Brigadier General Eric D. Little, at Range Control for finalization of schedules, other information for the launches this weekend, and continued support for the program. The meeting went very favorably but they will not be able to accommodate any launches on Friday, just set up at the range. Saturday and Sunday will continue to our testing days as originally scheduled.
The group walked to Chili’s for dinner and discussion about tomorrow’s events and schedules. The team plans to leave for the Alamogordo High School tomorrow morning at 6:30 am.
Schools and other personnel also traveled in today. Tomorrow all Stage 2 checks will begin by 7:00 am. All schools and personnel are asked to be there on time and ready to work. Schools are asked to bring their own weights to simulate load cells and nitrous oxide loads. All other needed equipment for pressure checks will be there. Load cells will be available for sale for those that need one.
Electricity and restrooms are available at the high school during the day. Each school is responsible for acquiring food and drinks for their group for all meals and snacks each day.
All documentation was completed and turned in to Rebekah Hyatt, Thursday evening upon arrival.
UXO briefing registry
WSMR waiver
SystemsGo waiver
Friday upon notification from WSMR, SystemsGo Staff, pertinent personnel, and students from the first two rocket teams, who have cleared Stage 2, will be going down range to set up the rails and equipment for launch. They will also load these two rockets onto the rails that evening, ready for testing, Saturday morning,
In the event that all schools are through Stage 2 and rockets are finished, then all groups will go at that time and transport rockets to the site. Therefore the earlier vehicles are completed the more chance this can be accomplished. If this is not accomplished then the rest will come in a later group.
The current launch order as per the draw, but contingent on readiness, are as follows:
Brazoswood
Union Grove
Booker T Washington
Alamo Heights
The current schedule has launches beginning by 8:00 am Saturday morning.
Here is the address for the high school for Stage 2 on Friday morning. It is located just east of the Walmart.
Tomorrow will be an early morning, and a busy day in preparation for Saturday’s launches.
Good luck to all schools on your rocket tests.
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.
The Rockets 2021 season transitioned to New Mexico this week after three weekends on the Texas Rocket Trail. New Mexico launches are the fourth for the Tsiolkovsky and Oberth levels.
The current rosters list 8 schools participating in the Jal, New Mexico launch, where they will be testing 16 rockets. This is the fourth active year for this venue.
Their numbers in both schools and rockets are down in New Mexico since the 2019 season, just as they were in Texas, due to schools navigating COVID parameters.
SystemsGo New Mexico does have a twitter feed in order to follow the launches. The link is still live, but right now there are no current tweets. That link is https://twitter.com/SystemsGoNM
The launch dates, locations, and schools are also listed here for your convenience or can be found at http://www.systemsgo.org/events/ .
Jal, New Mexico:
Tuesday, May 11 – Thursday, May 13
Returning to the launch site on Phillips Hill Road near Jal.
Schools participating: Fort Sumner HS, Grady HS, Hagerman HS, Jal HS, Lovington HS, Alamogordo HS, Dora HS, Portales HS
16 expected rockets for testing
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Jal High School
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Alamogordo High School
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Dora High School
Wednesday, May 12th, 2021
7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Lovington High School
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Ft. Sumner High School
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Portales High School
Thursday, May 13th, 2021
8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at Hagerman High School
11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Grady High School
The sites will be open for admittance at 6:00 a.m. and launches will commence there after.
I am not sure exactly how the time frame on these launches will actually work. The block form of the schedule is a little different than the Texas schedules were. I know in Texas it depended on which schools’ rockets made it through Stages 1, 2, and 3 as to when and what order they launched. In Jal they have a block 3 hour time frame for each school. I don’t really know how all the Stages factor in so it should be interesting to watch how the launches progress through the day.
Of course rockets are subject to winds, weather and workmanship, all of which can stall a launch. Come join in the action and cheer on these students on the Livsestream. Even though spectators and family cannot be there in person, just knowing you are watching them and cheering them on will boost their morale and bolster their success for their vehicles launch. Besides then you still get to see the look on your students’ faces when their vehicle goes up and then is recovered. That alone, is from priceless.
A live feed for the Jal, New Mexico, launches will be provided at www.systemsgo.org .
The senior groups are tentatively scheduled to launch their Goddard level rockets at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico in late June. Right now these are still very tentative. News on this may be available in the next few weeks. These are not available for public viewing or Livestream due to being tested on a military facility, but blog and SystemsGo updates will be posted online as available during that week.
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.
Hope to see you at the launches! #RideTheSkies #texasrockettrail #Rockets2021 #EyesontheSkies
On the Wings of Angels 