Local team to compete in national rocketry competition

SAGINAW, Mich. (WNEM) - A team of local students are taking a passion for rockets to new heights.

Five members of the newly formed Astro-Kings Rocketry Team of Community Baptist Christian School are ready for lift off at a nationwide competition happening soon.

“It’s pretty much a team effort. We all kind of agree on the thing we want to do,” said Alexis Cody, an Astro-Kings team member

Team leader Matthew Goff said the team got together in November and started their work with help from the use of 3D printers at Lockwood STEM.

“Really took us a while to get started building the rocket, because we had to do a lot of planning first. So, we only started launching back in February,” Goff said.

There was trial and error.

“There’s a lot of variables. The weather. The wind. Finding places to launch. And finding time to launch,” said Caleb Clark, a team member. “After we launched a rocket for the very first time, I found that the bottom half of the rocket we had to rebuild because the pins were too small, and since we replaced it, we have flown that rocket four times.”

There rocket, which contains an egg, will be shot 850 feet into the air, and then deploy two parachutes as it comes down.

With help from educators, the students taking are their abilities to new heights, creating a website, producing video, and finding donors.

“My role is a mentor. I don’t make any of the team decisions, but I help guide them in the right direction so from a stem perspective, science, technology engineering, and math it hits every one of those,” said James Goff, the team’s mentor.

Their entry is now blasting off now to the American Rocketry Challenge. Finalists will be announced next month.

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