WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says 20 college student teams are spending the winter building rockets they will launch this spring in a rocketry competition.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's annual University Student Launch Initiative will be held in April at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Student teams will bring their rockets to the NASA center, where professional engineers will conduct formal design reviews before the students take part in a final, all-day launch competition, NASA said.
The space agency said the event is designed to inspire young people to pursue careers in fields critical to NASA's mission: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Each team designs, builds and field-tests one rocket -- a vehicle that can fly to an altitude of one mile and sustain an onboard science experiment that gathers measurable data.
A listing of participants and additional information is available at http://education.msfc.nasa.gov/usli
