Waiting to Launch
By Victoria Garcia Avila | Photos Courtesy Art Applewhite |
The Rocketry team is waiting to see if they will get another chance at nationals this year. Ranked at 102 out of 1000 teams, with 101 teams going they have to wait and see if anyone drops to see if they can compete at Nationals for the Team America Rocketry Challenge, May 9-10.
Rey Leyva, Jacob Mangold, Josh Incardona and Thomas Hopkins prepare to launch for a qualifying time in Seguin. Photo courtesy Art Applewhite.
“In competition where the lowest score wins, the cutoff score to make the finals this year was 54.12 seconds, and we missed it by .12 seconds,” sponsor Christina Moreno said.
The Rocketry program is part of ETA, and is one of the programs students can do throughout their high school careers.
“It’s going good, just started last year and I’m not settled down yet,” sophomore Dalia Castillo said.
Last year at TARC nationals the Rocketry team had bad weather with wind and rain, but they still got second place.
“I love working with the computers to design the rocket and building it, it’s cool to see how if you changed one thing it could change the whole flight,” sophomore Isabella Leighton said.
“[Right now we’re] seeing if any of our teams won, to go to Virginia but overall getting ready for the next year,” Leighton said.
Finalists for TARC of 2014 come from 25 states and U.S. Virgin Islands. Nationals is in Virginia.