As hundreds of friends and families looked on, Texas high school science students, including two contingents from Brune Charter School, got a real-world look at rocket science as they launched rockets miles above the Texas Hill Country during Rockets ‘09 near Fredericksburg, Texas.

Nine students from Ed Brune High School at Big Springs Ranch for Children took part in the SystemsGo Aeroscience program, ending with the successful launch of two vehicles.

The Junior class team from Brune launched a four-inch diameter vehicle. The rocket flew to 7,230 feet with a payload of one pound. That altitude was comparable to the one achieved by the University of Texas Rocket Association, whose members include rocket science engineering students. The Junior class rocket was successfully retrieved after a landing aided by a parachute. A second team, made up of Brune High seniors, launched their rocket to 3,800 feet.

Next year the incoming Senior team will attempt to launch a vehicle that breaks the sound barrier. They will be working on building that rocket during the ‘09-10 school year along with two advanced students from the incoming Junior class. Then, in year three of the project, those students will build a vehicle capable of reaching even higher altitudes. That one will be launched at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Meanwhile, a new team made up of ‘09-10 Junior class students will be learning the ropes as the next generation of Brune rocketeers by building a new vehicle to enter in the April 2010 area competition.

"This was our first year in the SystemsGo program," said Brune Science teacher Tripp Davenport, "I am really proud of the success of both of our teams. Many first-year schools never got their vehicle off the ground, and we got both of ours to the launch pad and in the air."

"The program is a wonderful experience for our children," said Davenport. "This is an opportunity in which very few children in the state take part. The class is difficult, spanning two semesters of high school. In the fall, the students start building small scale model rockets and applying the principles of stable flight."

Then the students learn how to calculate thrust and drag, and use what they learn to design rockets that obtain higher velocities and altitudes.

The students started the building of their rockets in January. Using computer designs and knowledge from their class instruction, they built a vehicle that would be stable and safe to launch. They select the materials and do all of the construction by hand themselves; they even order their materials, filling out purchase and shipping orders.

Students are able to calculate how high their vehicle will travel, the speed of the vehicle, and they can even predict where the vehicle will land. The junior class pinpointed their landing site within a few hundred feet.

"Besides numbers, there was an impressive focus exhibited by the 500 high school students participating in the launch," said Carson Dickie, President of Ignite, Inc.

Of the University of Texas’s Longhorn Rocket Association’s two rockets, one included a camera; clips are now on YouTube.

On hand were representatives from the aerospace industry and higher education, including Texas A&M, Texas Tech-Hill Country, Kettering University, NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Lower Colorado River Authority.

SystemsGo was developed by Brett Williams, technology teacher at Fredericksburg High School, with the help of a grant from the Texas Governor’s Office.