Parker High Powered Rocketry Soars Again

On Saturday, May 20, four students—junior Warner Vance, sophomores Victoria Batts and Beckett Nikitas and freshman Spencer Koh—and faculty member George Austin traveled to the Richard Bong State Recreation Area in Wisconsin to launch the rocket that they had worked on during Cookies. They were met there by Dr. Judy Lubin who had once again advised the Parker team on how to build a high powered rocket.

 

Dr. Lubin inspected the rocket, assisted the team to prep and load the rocket motor that provided an average of 112 lbs. of thrust over 1.2 seconds and certified the rocket for launch. After an initial failed attempt due to a faulty launcher at the field, the team watched the fruits of their effort soar into the sky on their second attempt. The onboard altimeter recorded the rocket to have gone 700 feet in the air and a GPS tracker showed it to have landed about a mile away in a field. After about a 45-minute trek through the forested area, the team was able to successfully recover the rocket which remained intact and ready for a future, more ambitious, launch.

 

On May 4th and 5th, students participated in Cookies, one of those Cookies was “A Study in Model Rocketry” where students learned briefly about the history of rocketry along with the science that goes into launching a rocket. After that students constructed the 91" rocket, along with a few smaller model rockets. The students in the Cookie class were Beckett Nikitas, Leena Mehta, Warner Vance, Victoria Batts, Jasper Polsky, Gabel Suasnavart, Henry Stegemann, John Sinchi, Henry Schechtman Shah, David Mendoza, Spencer Koh, Elan Kaeding Valentine, Delilah Davis, and Max Satterfield and sponsored by Natasha Itkin and George Austin. 

 

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