Science, Technology, Perseverance... and FUN!

One of our favorite stories at TARC 2010 unfolded before our cameras as we watched a high school team hit a bad run of luck... one misfire... then another... followed by a last minute (literally) launch that occurred right before the deadline that would have disqualified them from the competition. We were thrilled with their perseverance, their grace under pressure and the fact that even when the pressure was on, they were having fun. The members of the Ingraham High School's 'Educated Pyros' impressed the heck out of us.

The Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is an aerospace design and engineering event for teams of US secondary school students (7th through 12th grades) run by the NAR and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). Teams can be sponsored by schools or by non-profit youth organizations such as Scouts, 4-H, or Civil Air Patrol (but not the NAR or other rocketry organizations).

The goal of TARC is to motivate students to pursue aerospace as an exciting career field, and it is co-sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers, 4-H, the Department of Defense, and NASA. The event involves designing and building a model rocket (2.2 pounds or less, using NAR-certified model rocket motors totaling no more than 80.0 Newton-seconds of total impulse) that carries a payload of 1 Grade A Large egg for a flight duration of 40 - 45 seconds, and to an altitude of exactly 825 feet (measured by an onboard altimeter), and that then returns the egg to earth uncracked using only a streamer as a recovery device. Onboard timers are allowed; radio-control and pyrotechnic charges are not.

The first seven Team America Rocketry Challenges, held in 2003 through 2009, were the largest model rocket contests ever held. Co-sponsored by the NAR and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), the five events together attracted about 5,100 high-school teams made up of a total of over 50,000 students from all 50 states. These students had a serious interest in learning about aerospace design and engineering through model rocketry.

The top 100 teams each year came to a final fly-off competition in late May near Washington, DC, to compete for $60,000 in prizes. These teams were selected based on the scores reported from qualification flights that they conducted locally throughout the US.

FMI: www.rocketcontest.org, www.aia-aerospace.org, www.nar.org/TAchallenge.html, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews