One weekend per year, local high school teams gather together for a final exam of sorts. They have spent the majority of the school year analyzing, designing, and building large scale rockets and this is their only shot to see if it works. It’s launch day!

This year, Systems Go hosted one of the many 3-day launch event on May 12-14 in Anahuac, Texas. Student teams came in from all over the greater Houston area, made final preparations on their rockets, and carried them to the launch pads. The goals vary from carrying one pound of payload one mile up in the air, to the more advanced teams that are attempting to break the sound barrier!

Adrenaline and excitement are thick in the air as the countdowns begin. Some teams are met with beautiful launches, parachute deployments, and celebration, while others a left with a little more of fiery explosion of disappointment. Regardless of the outcome, the goal is learning. The only way to know if your project was a success is to recover the vehicle to analyze the data that got recorded on-board. Even if the launch didn’t go as planned, recovery of the vehicle remnants is critical for the students to learn what caused the failure so it can be prevented in the future.

Alpha SAR supports Systems Go at these yearly launch events to use our specialized training and technology to ensure we recover as many of these student projects as possible. We’re proud to say that out of the 30+ launches this year, there was only a single one that was not recovered.  Let’s just say everyone involved had a blast!

Author: Nick Blackman

Photos: Smugmug RocketsGO