Neel Mehta
United Launch Alliance, Ball Aerospace and the Space Foundation have sponsored the launch of two rockets built by ULA interns with payloads that Ball interns and Colorado K-12 students created.
ULA — a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin — said Sunday the event included efforts to launch the 50-foot-tall Future Heavy and 10-foot-tall Genesis rockets to simulate real-life missions and encourage students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
“The Student Rocket Launch offers students from kindergarten through graduate school a hands-on opportunity to design, test and ultimately launch their creations – a simulation of the multi-year missions ULA works with our customers,”said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO.
Sixty-eight ULA interns built Future Heavy and Genesis while 37 Ball interns created four major payloads such as onboard experiments or instruments for Future Heavy with the help of mentors from both companies.
Fifteen K-12 students teams also built additional payloads for Future Heavy such as a solar physics experiment of kindergartners and a replication of NASA‘s Curiosity rover when it entered Mars.
The event also demonstrated various concepts such as search and rescue missions through unmanned aerial vehicles, off-road vehicle deployment and LED light show.
