‘It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity:’ NASA flight programs provide students with real-world experience
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va.- “I’m going to feel like a proud dad but for myself. It’s going to be awesome,” LaTorre said.
Jose LaTorre is a Delaware Tech student preparing for a big rocket launch Thursday from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It’s all a part of NASA’s RockOn! Program, which for Jose is even more special doing it alongside his sister. “As a biology major, coming into this program it was an opportunity for me to be open minded and engage in something that felt like it could be beyond me,” Wilmington University Senior Sarah LaTorre said.
The program gives students from across the U.S. the opportunity to develop flight experiments, launching them aboard a suborbital sounding rocket. “Essentially, ours will be collecting some radiation rays or data that we can use to look at how the earth’s atmosphere has changed over the past few years,” LaTorre said.
NASA officials say the goal is to not only build a diverse workforce but provide students with real world experience. “To me, that’s developing true scientist, technicians, and engineers because they can see the full scope through these programs,” RocOn! Program Senior Manager Joyce Winterton said.
As they gear up for Thursday, students say the launch will probably be the easy part. “We’re looking into weather, boating, and making sure there’s no problems with the actual sounding rocket itself,” LaTorre said.
Sarah actually started her journey with RockOn! during the pandemic. Now a senior she says the program has given her clarity for what’s next in her career and allowing her to leave a legacy. “It’s kind of leaving me at a spot where I can feel like I get good closure by being able to pass that torch on to him and having some representation from our small state of Delaware,” LaTorre said.
“When I heard I was going to be able to help her out and make a payload and see it all be launched off. It’s one of those things you can’t refuse. It’s a once in a life-time opportunity,” LaTorre said.
After learning the essentials in RockOn! students can then go on to participate in Rock-Sat-C program.
It allows students to build and design more challenging experiments.
Winterton tells 47ABC these launches have a 95% success rate. The mission is scheduled to launch on Thursday, June 22 with a window of 5:30am- 9:30am.
Upwards of 80 other experiments will also take flight as part of the Cubes in Space program which provides students ages 11 to 18 flight opportunities.
