Space Grant partners developed the Student Launch Project five years ago to create scientific and engineering literacy in the area of launch technology. The program prepared students, parents, and teachers for the possibility of a spaceport by educating them on the launch industry and all its implications.

The statewide participants in the Launch Project included New Mexico State University, University of New Mexico, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, White Sands Missile Range, and ten public high schools: Espanola Valley High, Farmington High, St. Michaels High, Tularosa High, Grants High, La Cueva High, Moriarity High, Onate High, Piedra Vista High, Tatum High.

The Student Launch Project was an education and research project designed to involve students, teachers, industry, and community members in science, engineering, and mathematics activities.

The Student Launch Project was a statewide program involving most of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium partners. Each partner institution determined their level of participation in the Launch Project based on their knowledge, skills, abilities, and resources.

The statewide Student Launch Project was a program coordinated around the theme of launch technologies. The Student Launch Project activities included the building and launching of high powered model rockets with payloads, from White Sands Missile Range.

The College of Engineering at New Mexico State University offered a microcontroller-based data acquisition and analysis class developed around the design project of providing the instrumentation for a high powered model rocket. The control element for the data acquisition system is a programmable micro-controller computer system. Post-flight data analysis of the sensor output is performed using a spreadsheet package.

Student Launch Project Success Stories