Student rocket launched in the third edition of the Fly a Rocket! programme.

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 06:15:00 GMT
ESA Education

Last week, 24 university students from across Europe travelled to the Andøya Space Center in...

The Fly a Rocket! programme is run by the ESA Education Office in partnership with Andøya Space Education and the Norwegian Space Agency.

The call for applications for the third cycle of the Fly a Rocket! programme took place last summer.

With the COVID crisis shutting down most of the world, also the Fly a Rocket! launch campaign had to be postponed.

During the campaign the budding rocketeers attended several lectures explaining the day-to-day work at a rocket range and arming them with the skills to build and launch their own rocket.

Most of the students' time during the campaign was dedicated to hands-on rocket work, where they prepared their rocket for flight.

The "Payload" and "Sensors" sections performed the bulk of the sensor and payload assembly and testing, while the third "Telemetry" section set up and tested the telemetry station to ensure data would be received from the rocket during flight.

On Thursday, 14th October 2021, the preparations were finished, and the rocket was ready to be launched.

During the countdown the students performed typical operational duties involved in a rocket launch.

After a few short delays during the countdown, the rocket was launched at 15:57 local time and reached an altitude of approximately 8km before splashing down safely a few kilometres off the coast.

The rocket launch is not the end of the students' participation in the Fly a Rocket! programme.

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