rocket program – On the Wings of Angels

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

Rockets 2017-Friday Day 2 Report and Saturday Schedule

Friday had another slow start for rockets. The ceiling was a low again. SystemsGo was able to load 24 out of 25 rockets listed on the schedule onto the rails and launched all 24.The 25th was an abort by one of the schools.

Here are a few of those smiling faces taking their rockets down to the pad.

The north end of the range seemed to be the prime spot for landings today, which kept recovery in that area fairly busy. Unfortunately that left those of us on the south end a little bored so we went to help our northern friends quite often. So then how many recovery teams does it take to find one rocket?

As is normal, Transonics amassed most of those still missing in the field. They also made up the bulk of the final ones shot due to waiting on that cloud ceiling to clear. Coordinates for those have been generated, and the search is ongoing.

David Willden and the group from New Mexico helped out until around noon when they had to launch themselves back towards home. There help was greatly appreciated, and for them it was also further training for next year’s second launch series in Jal.

Phil Houseal was busy interviewing spectators, students and volunteers today. He even managed to catch me and coerce me into another interview this year. We seem to have a continued game between us. We both prefer to be behind the camera instead of in the pictures, so I make sure to catch him and get him in the pictures I post, and he catches me and makes me talk on camera.

Tomorrow is another big day on the range, with a full docket of rockets and extra curricular activities after launches are done as well. It will be a busy and long day. It should be fun though. Hopefully the cloud ceiling will open up earlier so we can start those rockets in a more continuous pattern. And the rain can hold off until after dark and all will be good.

Below is the launch schedule for tomorrow, Saturday. There are 7 schools launching a total of 22 rockets tomorrow.

Saturday, May 20, 2017
School Name	# 1st Level Tsiolkovsky	# 2nd Level Oberth
Akins High School Joyce Sayce	5
Fabens High School Manny Moreno	3	2
Henrietta High School Doug Underwood	2	1
Maypearl High School James Herrod	1
McGregor High School Chris Kuhl	1	1
North Lamar High School Kathy Stewart	1
Northwest High School Elizabeth Mitias	4	1
7
Schools Launching
Totals	17	5
May 14^th Total Rockets	22

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.1477962108891582.1073741889.100000334203350&type=3&uploaded=221

Good luck to all the schools launching on Saturday. 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. 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.

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

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.

#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.

#SystemsGo #Rockets2017 #FredericksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01 #SystemsGoNewMexico

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.

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

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.

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 #FredericksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01

Sunday, Day 3 and The Last Day of Houston Rockets 2017-Recap

Today, Sunday, was the last day of launches at the Smith Point site for the SystemsGo team. They had two more schools, Northstar High School and Booker T Washington High School and five more rockets on the original schedule.

This made for another long day on the range, or at least longer than originally anticipated, but it allowed all the students’ hard work their chance to fly. They were up and out on the range early enough to watch the sunrise while they waited for rockets to load on rails, as seen here.

The team finally finished packing up and were highway bound headed back to Fredericksburg at about 4:45 this evening.

One of the highlights of the day was from Northstar High School. A guitar playing, singing, rocket engineer, Mr. Ian Barthlolmee, sat down with Phil and gave the live stream audience a small concert while they waited for his team’s rocket to get clearance down at the pad. What an enjoyable treat for folks there and online. You just never know who you will find in this rocket science business. Thank you for the musical treat Ian.

Here are a few shots of the action from the day.

Here is Ian’s team cheering their launch.

These were provided by pad team member, Chelsea Burow. Seen here with the Sunday Pad Team.

She also provided the sunrise, and the lead image for the article tonight, as well as some in the Facebook album mentioned below.

And this one is of the final rocket team of the day, Booker T Washington’s Transonic:

Thank you, Chelsea.

Along with the ones Chelsea shared, here is a link for some really nice ones from today from David Brady, from NASA. He and his daughter, Erika, helped at the pad today. This is their second year to be a part of the action down in Houston. These are some really good pictures, be sure to check out the link.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m5wgwe636vpqilg/AADj-yt145Wm1ppMqRNsHrKma?dl=0

More pictures will be in two Facebook albums for you to view at:

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow/media_set?set=a.1472882699399523&type=3&pnref=story These are from Chelsea and myself.

https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow/media_set?set=a.1472979219389871.1073741887.100000334203350&type=3&pnref=story Note, these are also the pictures by David Brady.

Event details will be available here each day of next week’s event in Willow City at Stewart Ranch. Daily reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures, and some editorial content will also be posted.

Friday, Day 1 For Houston Rockets 2017-Recap and Saturday’s Schedule

Today, Friday was the first day of Houston rocket launches. This is new for this year. Usually Friday is just a set up day, but do to more rocket volume to achieve launching, Friday afternoon was added. Eight schools tested a total of 12 rockets this afternoon.

According to reports from team members at the site, all 12 rockets left the rail. That does not mean each was a perfect launch, but then that is why they are considered test vehicles. All in all it was a good day with fabulous weather, and a great new location with good results. And they get to do it all over again Saturday.

These are screen shots of the action in Houston. Quality isn’t always perfect but at least you can see some of what went on today. I will add more to Facebook and post them at some point on Saturday. The link to my page is down below these photos.

I do have more photos I grabbed from the live feed as well as some from team members that I will be posting Saturday morning. https://www.facebook.com/ginger.burow

Here is the schedule for Saturday as listed on the SystemsGo website.

Saturday, May 13, 2017
School Name	# 1st Level Tsiolkovsky	# 2nd Level Oberth
Brazosport High School Bradley Nelson	1
Brazoswood High School Dale Hobbs	3	1
Channelview High School Alan Stone	3
Davis High School Hasan Johnson	2
Kingwood Park High School Jim Brown	2
Liberty High School Matthew Williams	2	1
SF Austin High School Richard Hubbard	5

7
Schools Launching
Totals	18	2
May 21^st Total Rockets	20

Please remember that since there is pubic access to this event this year, there are tickets for order and those may be found on the SystemsGo website as well at this link: https://www.greateventseats.com/events.php?lID=92

Livestream is available again this year so friends and family can watch the action online. The link for that is on SystemsGo‘s website or posted here: http://livestream.com/systemsgo

Here is Phil Houseal keeping the Livestream action going:

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

SystemsGo Team Travels to Smith Point for an Early Start to Houston Rockets 2017-Friday’s Launch Schedule Included

The StsytemsGo team left today, Thursday, headed to Smith Point, near Anahuac, Texas down near Houston. This is a new location for this year. They arrived there early today, setting up the launch site, and readying everything for an early start, as launches begin Friday afternoon. This is new for this year.

Launches will continue all day Saturday, and half a day on Sunday with 17 schools launching a total of 39 vehicles.

The current launch schedule for Friday is shown below and may also be downloaded from SystemsGo website at the following address: http://www.systemsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Flight-Schedule-Rockets-2017-Houston-4-4-17-.2.pdf

Friday, May 12, 2017
School Name	# 1st Level Tsiolkovsky	# 2nd Level Oberth
Anahuac High School Kirk Moore	1	1
Dickinson High School Sara Malloy	1
Eisenhower High School Jacob Arriaga	1
Pasadena Memorial High School Katherin Melton	1
Pasadena Memorial High School Kyle Jurek	1
South Houston High School Kevin Herron	4
Victoria East High School Adam Wertman	2
Victoria West High School Cheryl Clark	1

Schools Launching 8
Totals	12	1
May 21^st Total Rockets	13

This new launch site, will allow public access this year. A map to the location as well as directions are available at the SystemsGo Events page found here:

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

Phil Houseal and Zach Pooser will be on site providing the Livestream up-link again this year so friends and family can watch the action online. Here is the link to the live stream for the Houston launches.

http://livestream.com/systemsgo

Zach and Phil provide a great experience for both viewers at home and the students and team on site while helping to bolster the STEM program. Allowing the public to share in the action and see what these students are accomplishing as they apply all they have learned in class, and continue to learn from their launch results, helps SystemsGo to grow interest in the future of the STEM program and the hands on approach to learning.

Just a note, the tickets are free of charge but are required for entrance. They are available on site at the gate as well but the preferred method is online at the link above.

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

What’s All This About Rockets: Success Stories-Anissa Kneese

Welcome back to Rocket Success stories. This is the second installment of this series of Interview style articles, in which we meet individuals that studied under the SystemsGo STEM program and have gone on to build their futures on the skills it teaches. Last month we met, Robert Deaver, a 1996 graduate of the program. This month we are looking at a young lady that is a more recent graduate also from Fredericksburg High School in 2014, miss Anissa Kneese.

Anissa is currently a college student at Texas A&M, which allows us to talk with her now and to check back with her and see exactly where her education and career choices have taken her in the future. This is in a way, the middle of her path, but the drive she has to complete her engineering goals are a direct correlation of her experience in the program.

“Before taking the rocket program classes in high school, I had no idea I was interested in engineering, I learned about the many different engineering paths. and I fell in love with problem solving. I am now working toward my degree in Mechanical Engineering thanks to SystemsGo.”

Anissa joined the STEM program out of curiosity her freshman year, because of all she had heard about it from friends and family. She quickly realized that this class would shape her future.

“After completing the first class freshman year, I was considering majoring in engineering in college. Sophomore year pushed me even more in that direction, and after junior year there was no doubt what so ever this was my future career path. Senior year was the icing on the cake!”

As she studied in the program, her reasons changed from curiosity to excitement and the class became a priority for her.

“By junior year I was so eager to go to class every day. I knew I would learn something new or something really eventful and exciting would happen. Like running a successful student designed test that caused a nearby resident to call the fire department!” Engine and fuel burn tests can be loud and though most folks have become accustomed to these tests, this one was particularly loud, and caused a stir, something she recalls with guarded humor.

Anissa participated on two teams. The first was the Mechanical team for static hybrid propulsion testing, and then the injector team for the Redbird #15 Rocket, as long as helping with electronics, payload and engine installation. Her specific jobs on these projects included, “For propulsion and testing I prepped fuel grains by ensuring their size was exact, installing them in the test cell, and preparing the test cell by sealing the cell to prevent oxidizer leakage. After each test I would clean the test cell and prep the next fuel grain. I also set up oxidizer tanks and plumbing from the tanks to the test cell. During tests, I would make sure all solid and liquid weights were recorded to be used in calculations in the days to follow.”

The Redbird #15 is the rocket that her group designed to launch at White Sands Missile Range. This is where she really had to put her education to work and it presented her with her hardest problem to solve.

“The toughest problem I came across was “trouble shooting” an injector design that had mysteriously failed in a Redbird rocket from the year before. My teammates and I designed several tests to attempt to understand the previous failure, and this proved to be quite difficult. After a redesign with new materials, the injector worked flawlessly in our Redbird rocket.”

Even with this struggle accomplished with perfect results, she considers another success the greatest her and her team accomplished during their time in the program.

“I would consider my (and my team’s) best success being the first high school team to complete a full round of three 40 second hybrid test burns. This had been attempted by several classes before us (and even ourselves the year before), so coming back the next year and being successful was a great feeling.”

The SystemsGo program teaches individual accountability as well as team coherence. Anissa found this to be one of the most important things she learned in the program.

“This program taught me countless lessons and technical approaches to problems, but the most important thing I learned was the importance of communication. It is impossible to accomplish any great task without full communication and understanding from every team member involved.”

Many of the students who have participated in this program, not only go on to higher education and careers in STEM fields, they enjoy giving back to the program where ever possible. Anissa is no exception to this, she returns each year to help as launch pad lead at the Willow City launches. If possible she plans to continue helping and being involved with the program however possible.

“I would enjoy mentoring and helping students in the future with the design process or understanding the set up and procedures of building the static propulsion testing. I would also enjoy having a job with SystemsGo in the future. I think having experience in industry would be valuable to gain first, but I would enjoy coming back and teaching at some point.

Her current advice for students considering or currently in the program is, “work as hard as you can every day. Don’t be afraid to get sweaty and leave class with your hands dirty. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, you will learn so much if you are eager to get involved!”

Along with the fantastic education the SystemsGo STEM program provides in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields, it also helps build confidence and character. It teaches each student to reach into themselves and take pride in what they are accomplishing and can accomplish. For many students, it is a learning boost they may never have known they needed until they discovered it in themselves during the program. Anissa sums up that experience.

“I learned that I am capable of accomplishing anything I have my heart in and I’m willing to work hard to achieve.”

I would like to thank Anissa Kneese for participating in this article series. These are written in hopes that all may understand the impact that STEM can have on your students and future employees. Having a program available at the high school level to teach, encourage and support this type of learning is instrumental to getting these students into great career futures. Encourage your students to get involved in STEM and the SystemsGo program if it is available at your child’s school. If it is not available, look into how you can bring it to your area. This program will greatly benefit your school and children.

If you know or have a student that went through the program that would like to share their story here, please contact me in the comment section on this blog or if you follow it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn contact me there, and I will send you information to participate.

http://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.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: