Reaching new heights

It's not every day a student experiment hitches a ride aboard a NASA rocket, but that's exactly what a University of Delaware student team achieved earlier this week.

A sounding rocket carrying experiments developed by eight student teams from across the United States, including from UD, launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Tuesday, Aug. 12. It was part of NASA's RockSat-X mission, which provides students with unique technical training and practical experience for future aerospace careers. The Delaware Space Grant Consortium sponsored the UD team's participation.

The Terrier-Improved Malemute rocket reached an altitude of about 100 miles (162 kilometers) before descending by parachute into the Atlantic Ocean to be recovered.

Onboard the rocket from UD was a Langmuir probe, designed to collect information on super-charged space plasma, which can affect Earth in many ways, from producing auroras to disrupting communication and navigation systems, according to Bennett Maruca, associate professor of physics and astronomy, who was present with his team for the launch. They included Kiersten Ebersole and Marko Putnik, both juniors in mechanical engineering, and three alums who graduated with their bachelor's degrees from UD this past spring - Khaled-Alameer Abdelnasser in computer science and engineering, and Nate Riehl and Kirin-Justin Stevens, both in electrical engineering.