Astronautics offers cadets unique opportunity

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. James A. Rush
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) --  Not every college lets students build and launch monster rockets and earn undergraduate credit at the same time. Odds are they are more likely to be placed on a list at the Homeland Security Department unless they are going to the academy.

Astronautical Engineering 452/453 Rocket Engineering is the academy’s two-course path to becoming a rocket scientist. A group of engineering students moved a step closer to that goal when a project took flight April 25 at nearby Fort Carson’s Pinon Maneuver area.

“The second the rocket fired and took off, you could feel the weight lifted from the shoulders of each and every cadet (who) had put so much time and effort into something not many undergraduate college kids can ever say they did. It was awesome!” said Cadet 1st Class Chris Nations who was chosen randomly to press the “fire” button.

Cadet Nation’s prompting sent an 11.5-foot tall, 7-inch diameter, 115-pound rocket blasting away with 1,100 pounds of thrust from a solid rocket motor. Maj. Dan Miller, program manager and primary course instructor, said he feels the cadets’ experience is even more unique than they realize.

“No other university is building and launching this class of rocket at the undergraduate level,” the major said. “Cadets and faculty went from blank paper to flight hardware in eight months. This included developing the rocket motor with propellant, insulation, throat and nozzle, pressure-vessel case [and] recovery system.”

Computer modeling predicted a flight of up to Mach 1.8.

“We probably didn’t get that, but from the sonic boom, we [know we] broke the sound barrier,” Major Miller said. The missile fell short of its top speed and projected flight ceiling of 50,000 feet because of a parachute malfunction during flight.

The parachute inadvertently deployed early and at high speed, Major Miller said. He said the problem will be fixed on future projects.

Air Force Research Laboratory’s space propulsion division officials took an interest in the cadet program in 2002 and began funding it with $100,000 per year. The lab takes cadets on field trips to government and industry sites of space propulsion interest as well.

The big picture plan is to build a rocket large enough to reach space, Major Miller said. Next year’s mission will shoot for 330,000 feet, and the Air Force Space Test Program officials plan to put experimental payloads on future missions.

“The (academy) rocket program is going higher, faster and farther than at any other time in its history,” said Cadet 1st Class Kevin Geoffroy, project’s chief engineer. “Our rocket class will pass everything we have learned to ... the Class of 2005. They will benefit from the lessons we have learned as we did from the Class of 2003.”

Glad as he was to see the cadets’ rocket take to the air, Major Miller said he is also pleased to have met an even more important goal. One month from now, his rocket scientists leave the academy and launch their own careers as Air Force officers and leaders.

“Cadets [in the program] experience firsthand what the ‘real world’ is like,” Major Miller said. “Technical challenges, schedule delays, peers that can or cannot be counted on … ; this is a yearlong leadership laboratory focused on a specific goal. My objectives are not primarily rocket science, but developing officers.”