Mat-Su College team participates in a NASA rocketry program

Students from Mat-Su College have not been taking the summer off as several students recently participated in a NASA rocketry program, RockOn! 2024, to build an experiment that is then launched into space.

RockOn! is a hands-on workshop teaching applicants how to create a sounding rocket experiment from the drawing board over a 5-day period before launching it into space on the 6th day of the workshop.

The workshop is geared to college students and faculty, with no prerequisites for participants. Anything needed to be successful at the workshop will be taught at the workshop. With a limit of 28 teams, which are comprised of 3 people (2 students and 1 faculty member). The students from Mat-Su College were Justice Darby and Liam Pavilionis, with faculty advisor Dr. Dan Nichols, Associate Professor of Physics at the school.

Each team builds one RockOn experiment. All experiments will fly on the rocket and into space.

This team experience recently took place June 14-19, and projects were launched on June 20, at Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.