The Saint Andrews SLI Team Proudly Reaches out to our Community in an article published in our local paper.

 

 

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Members of the St. Andrews rocket team check their equipment.

 

 

 

NASA Picks Local Rocket Team

 

 

 

November 30, 2006

 

By JENNIFER JOHNSON Staff Writer

 

A local model rocket team is blasting off in a big way this year after establishing a special partnership with NASA.

 

The six-member St. Andrews Rocket Team from St. Andrews Lutheran in Park Ridge is one of 16 model rocket teams in the nation to be named a 2007 NASA Student Launch Initiative Team. As an SLI Team, St. Andrews' members will design, build and launch an eight-foot tall, 20-pound rocket that must fly at least one mile into the air while conducting experiments. Equipment on board the rocket will measure things like temperature, relative humidity, altitude, velocity and air speed, and conduct studies of atmospheric air density and fluid dynamics. 

 

The big launch will take place April 25-29 in Huntsville, Ala., and is the most complex launch and experiment in which the team has been involved.

 

"It's a really cool, once in a lifetime experience," said Team Leader Len Johnson, father of two of the team members.

 

The team won a contract with NASA to build the high powered rocket after competing in the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) last year.

 

In that competition, the goal was to build a rocket that could safety carry a raw egg without it breaking and remain airborne for a specific period of time.

 

Because St. Andrews ranked among the top 25 finalists participating in that competition, members were invited to submit a proposal to NASA's Student Launch Initiative in hopes of receiving the prestigious honor of working with NASA scientists.

 

Both TARC and NASA's SLI are offered to young people as outlets for them to enjoy their model rocketry hobby and to encourage them to consider careers in engineering.

 

"It's to promote engineering and to get them to go to college and pursue engineering degrees," Johnson said.

 

Half of the team's members are interested in pursuing careers in aerospace and engineering, Johnson said.

 

Team members are Maine South High School students Sasha Johnson, Kenneth Johnson and Michael Williamson; A.J. Witzke, a Buffalo Grove High School student; Michael Cinquino, a Hoffman Estates High School student; and Eric Ludwig, a Wheeling High School student.

 

On Oct. 23, the team met for a live teleconference with NASA engineers where they received instructions on sending periodic reports of their test flights and design work to NASA.

 

They were also advised to carefully plan what it is they want their rocket to do.

 

The team launched their first test model on Oct. 30. The model was a quarter of the size -- only 22.5 inches long -- and tests of altitude, aerodynamics and stability were conducted.

 

"Everything functioned according to what their predictions were," Johnson said.