---

"Launch pad ready," one teenager said.

"Ignition system ready," another chimed in.

The hour the groups of teens had spent measuring the wind, modifying launch rod angles and analyzing air pressure was coming to a close: It was time for the team of seven "rocket scientists" from Catholic Central High School in Troy to test the rocket that qualified them for a national competition.

"Prepare for takeoff."

The 40-inch rocket burst into the sunny, late-April sky, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake. The students watched hopelessly as their carefully crafted streamer recovery system - which should have slowed the rocket's descent - failed to deploy, leading to the demise of the large grade-A egg resting in the craft's 800-gram body tube.

Two students raced across the test site, an overgrown meadow in Guilderland, to fetch the black, purple and white craft. Dejectedly, they returned to their tent of equipment to rinse out the yolk with a water bottle and start over.

At the upcoming Team America Rocketry Challenge in The Plains, Va., Crusaders 1, as the team calls itself, will have to shoot a rocket that carries a raw, unbroken egg to an altitude of 825 feet in between 40 and 45 seconds.

Try, try, try
The second launch last week worked: The new egg shot up 824 feet in 39.56 seconds and survived the fall. Crusaders 1 would have scored about a 2, even better than its competition-qualifying score of 3.

This left the seventh- through 12th-graders, who clutched stopwatches and clipboards, cheerful about their chances at the mid-May showdown.

"Anything can happen," agreed their coach and science teacher, Dan Maloney. "We have as good a chance as anybody to win it."

He said that the team, one of three at CCHS, changed the folding technique of the streamer and developed a smaller rocket body tube than other teams, ensuring smaller mass and higher altitude.

The students spend about five hours each week simulating rocket launches with computer software and toying with the craft's features. They constructed the real rocket in a day.

Back to earth
Both a parent who is an architect and a National Association of Rocketry representative mentor the team, which is the first in the Capital Region to qualify. Two other New York State teams will compete along with 97 teams from other states.

If CCHS' team places among the top 10, the students could earn thousands of dollars in scholarships and prizes; if they win, they will compete in an international show near London in July.

But Crusaders 1 cannot be too confident, Mr. Maloney warned: High winds can curve the rocket's flight pattern; still air can straighten it too much.

The unpredictability has taught the students to think analytically.

"The more hands-on stuff they can do, the better choices they can make down the road," Mr. Maloney said, adding that rocketry attracts kids to careers in science.

Chris Haas, a junior, has been playing with rockets for years, "but they're not nearly this big," he explained. "I always thought rocketry was just launching rockets, but there's a lot more to it than I thought."

(05/13/10) [[In-content Ad]]

---