Nazareth Rocketry Program – Training Tomorrow’s Aerospace Leaders!

e-Magazine

High resolution LRO photo of Earth rising over the Moon in December, 2015. The photo evokes memories of the famous “Blue Marble” photo (bottom right) taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts on December 8, 1972 on their journey towards the Moon. (Photo credit: NASA.)

Veterans of this endeavor, in their three years into the hobby, they’ve already distinguished themselves as real rocket scientists. Meet NASA’s stars of tomorrow.

Newcomers to TARC, Stardust is committed to achieving excellence on the rocket field. With their practice runs complete, it’s now time to take aim at winning a spot in TARC 2018.

9 – Rocketeer Interviews Our rocket girls offer candid interviews about rocketry, teamwork, and leadership.

Not quite the entire 50 million miles to Mars, but check out this exclusive feature of the Soaring Pandas testing genuine Mars VR equipment designed by NASA!

Future leaders (left to right) Gianna Brock ’21 Korianna Rosenthal ’21 Mackenzie Kephart ’20 Ciara Dubeck ’21 Fiona Buck ‘21

Nothing short of extraordinary.

At TARC 2017, the Soaring Panda’s won 6th Place overall, as well as three other contest awards.

Soaring Panda’s Prototype D rocket

launches skyward during field trials at

Rowan University’s Technology Park,

Williamstown, New Jersey.

Korianna Rosenthal ‘21, Captain of the Soaring Panda team, successfully launches her rocket to an altitude of 807 feet. Rosenthal has led TARC teams since 2015.

Korianna, Fiona, and Annalise climb the launch steps next to their launcher, pausing for a brief candid camera moment.

All systems are a GO!

Something has their attention…

“

Meet Team Stardust: another

Nazareth Academy contender for the

Team America Rocketry Challenge in

2018. Consisting of Katherine Braun

’19, Julia Davis ’19, Helen Dotchel ’19,

and Ruby Malek ’19, these rocket

girls have learned the rocket basics

quickly and now stand poised to

begin their qualification flights in

March. Stardust has done an

excellent job preparing their rocket

fleet and now stand fully ready to

begin their TARC qualification flights

in March. Best of luck!

Katherine, Julia, Ruby, and Helen at Rowan University Technology Park. It was cold that day but nothing stopped our rocket girls!

Stardust work intently on constructing

their TARC rockets.

Helen and Katherine discuss rocket nomenclature.

The team after completing their initial training with payloader rockets.

The Soaring Pandas sat down and gave candid interviews about what they think of the Team America Rocketry Challenge and their experience being on a true, rocket engineering team.

“Rocketry means so much more to me than it did before. Before it was just a word that I associated with the big stuff at NASA and a lot of big ideas that were just too far away from me. Now it’s associated with feelings of pride and joy about everything that I have accomplished with my team, and about everything that I have done with the Team America Rocketry Challenge.”

“Being a TARC team Captain has allowed me to develop

a lot of leadership skills. Being a leader requires a lot of

confidence in not only yourself, but also in your team.

You need to show your team that you’re always going to

be there for them—that you’re going to be a role model

and provide direction.”

“The reason I joined the Team America Rocketry

Challenge is because I love learning new things. And it’s

not everyday that you get to learn something like

rocketry. With this program, I have really been able to

enhance my knowledge of science and mathematics.”

“I started rocketry when I was in 6th grade. I’ve gotten a

lot of people into it, including my younger brother, who

now wants to do something like become a rocket

engineer.”

Last summer, the Soaring

Pandas were invited to try out official NASA Mars VR

equipment at the NASTAR Center in Southampton, PA. As they maneuvered around the ISS, built VR labs on Mars, and worked Mission Control, observers of this dynamic rocket

team noted how the

experience is probably a foreshadowing of what they’ll actually be doing in the 2030s. When it was over, engineers running the VR operation

commented on how dedicated our Soaring Pandas are to STEM science. They certainly left

their impressive mark on Mars

Above: Gianna prepares to fix the Curiosity rover while Fiona and Annalise (right) issue instructions from Mission Control. The Mars VR simulation requires the girls to build a base on Mars and perform tasks that on Earth would be very routine,

but on Mars, much more difficult to accomplish.

Left: Korianna makes “virtual” repairs and conducts tasks outside of model of the ISS.

The girls experienced the difficulties of working in a

simulated vacuum, complete with the restrictions of a pressurized space suit. Bottom Left: Annalise removes scientific equipment and moves tools

into place for her simulated

ISS experience. Afterward, the girls expressed a true appreciation for the complexities involved with working in outer space.

Results of our field testing for the Team America Rocketry Challenge!

Preparing for TARC 2019! Teaching others about rocketry!

Thanks for reading!

Produced by The Soaring Panda Rocket Team