Jacksonville Team Among Top 100 Finalists

The Challenger Center for Space Science Education and the Jacksonville, FL Challenger Learning Center from Kirby Smith Middle School will participate in the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) on Saturday, May 17.

Each year, over 7000 students participate in TARC. The Challenger Learning Center from Kirby Smith Middle School is one of the top 100 finalists that will participate in the Team America Rocketry.

The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Rocketry Association (NRA) sponsored this one-time event in 2002 to celebrate the Centennial of Flight. Due to the great enthusiasm for this event and the support garnered from the aerospace industry it prompted both AIA and NRA to hold this event annually.

This year, TARC participants are asked to design and build a rocket that can reach an altitude of 750 feet with the duration of the launch lasting no more than 45 seconds and return safely to the ground, all while carrying a fragile payload of two raw hen eggs.

Challenger Center for Space Science Education, the national organization for a network of over 50 regional Learning Centers, will be supporting the local Florida team and providing astronaut training activities for all event guests and participating students from across the United States.

Students will be able to take a ride in the Barany chair, a spinning chair used to help pilots and astronauts adjust to disorientation, and to try their hand at tossing a ball using special glasses that simulates what it might be like to work on the space station.

FMI: www.challenger.org, www.aia-aerospace.org/tarc/