THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605310549
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHINCOTEAGUE LENGTH: 86 lines
For a few heart-stopping moments, the parachute didn't open. It trailed uselessly behind the 13-foot rocket as it plunged toward an open field at Wallops Flight Facility on Thursday.
Students and teachers from Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach - builders of the rocket - held their breath, or shouted ``Open! Open!'' as it fell. About 50 feet above ground, the blue-and-yellow parachute finally blossomed. Children and adults yelled in triumph.
``I had a heart attack,'' said 18-year-old Francesca Melloni, who helped design the experiments loaded in the rocket's nose cone. ``We worked so hard! We have $700 worth of payload in there.''
Melloni is one of about 57 Ocean Lakes students who spent seven weeks designing, building and testing the experiments and launch vehicle.
The project was funded by a $1,000 gift from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. NASA and the National Space Society provided experienced people to guide the students.
``We're trying to get kids to apply what they learn in the classroom, be it math or electronics or science,'' said NASA spokesman Keith Koehler. ``Rocketry is a great way to do that.''
Virginia Beach City Councilman Robert K. Dean approached NASA about a rocket project when he heard of a similar one by students from Phoebus High School in Hampton. Dean said no school in Virginia Beach had ever built a real rocket, but that this launch would be the first of many.
``Aging scientists have to be replaced. Here are their replacements, here on this tarmac,'' Dean said.
He also said that some students who weren't interested in math or science changed their minds after the project.
To build the rocket, the teens divided into teams. Some made the nose cone or ignition, while others designed the payload or tracking and recovery systems. They worked in class and after school, pushing to finish the project before summer vacation.
Math teacher Ann Zingraff-Newton coordinated the groups.
``The challenge was that none of us had a clue as to what we were doing,'' she said. ``We had to find the right people with the right answers.''
Thursday's launch came all too soon. The students arrived at Wallops Flight Facility in two school buses, and proceeded to a briefing with NASA launch coordinator Geoff Bland.
``You can't launch a rocket without the weight of paperwork exceeding the weight of the rocket,'' Bland said as the students laughed. He reviewed the vehicle's predicted performance and safety issues. It was supposed to rise to about 1,500 feet, for instance. And he was impressed when he learned that the rocket would carry experiments to measure altitude, pressure changes and temperature.
``That's a serious payload there, folks,'' said Bland. ``Awesome.''
Finally, it was time to get the bird airborne. As one group put together the steel launch pad, another wired the solid-fuel engine to its ignition system.
Scott Greiber, leader of the engine ignition group, taped wires to their contacts with quiet intensity. Other boys in his group called the 16-year-old redhead ``The Man.''
``I'm the only student who knows how to put the motor together,'' Greiber said. He said their group was given a schematic of an ignition system, and they went to Radio Shack to buy the parts.
By the time they finished building and testing it, they had added two failsafe systems to the original plan and substituted an ``electronic match'' for the less reliable ``copperhead'' igniters that they had been instructed to use.
On Thursday, a tense Greiber wired the engine and carried it to the rocket body, where it was loaded.
``I can hear your heart from where I'm standing,'' teased team-member Joseph Brugeman, 14.
Finally the moment for lift-off arrived. Greiber and two others pushed the launch buttons. The engine hissed like a giant snake as the Ocean Lakes rocket streaked into a cloudless sky. When the parachute opened, it was over.
What had the students learned? Well, it depends on whom you asked. Some said they learned teamwork. Others learned functional things, like how to simplify the launch pad. But Joseph Brugeman focused on the drama of the take-off.
``We learned how to hyperventilate,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN color photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Scott ``The Man'' Greiber adjusts the 13-foot rocket's engine as
John Koehler makes sure he doesn't get his wires crossed.
Ocean Lakes High School students raise their project with its $700
payload on the taxiway at Wallops Island Thursday. by CNB