Area youth show off their engineering skills in rocket launch competition

  • Published
  • By Deidre Moon
  • AEDC/PA
Area students ages 10 to 18 competed in the annual Reach for the Stars competition, hosted by the Hands-on Science Center, or HOSC, in Tullahoma last month.

The participants built their rockets Aug. 21, but due to rain, the launching portion was postponed until Sept. 12.

Members of the Tennessee Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Coffee Airfoilers, and Olga Oakley, the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, Program director for the HOSC, organized the 2021 Reach for the Stars event for students from across southern middle Tennessee.

Competitors started the first day at the HOSC with a pep talk on the importance of STEM from Col. Jeffrey Geraghty, Arnold Engineering Development Complex commander.

Jim Burns, deputy of the AEDC Space Test Branch and AIAA member, along with Coffee Airfoilers Club member Ken Herrick and volunteer John Marchi, were on hand to share their expertise and provide assistance to the participants.
After two launches and parachute landings, the competitor with the closest average distance to an on-field target wins.

The 2021 winner of the local Reach for the Stars competition was Alex Winn, a freshman at Tullahoma High School. Winn, who also won the competition last year, has been invited to celebrate with the other national winners at an event at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Oakley congratulated Winn and all those who competed in this year’s event.

“Reach for the Stars is an annual educational outreach program meant to provide a fun, hands-on learning opportunity,” she said. “The students are always excited for the chance to build and launch their rockets. They do a really great job and put a lot of effort into it.

“I also want to thank everyone who participated, Commander Geraghty for being our speaker at this year’s event and especially to our volunteers for giving of their time.”