Student Rocketeers Wanted for World's Largest Rocket Contest

Team America Rocketry Challenge Registration Opens

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Registration for the world's largest student rocket competition is open now through November 30. The Team America Rocketry Challenge will accept up to 1,000 student teams in grades 7-12 from any U.S. school, home school or non-profit youth organization.

Sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association, this year's rocket contest challenges teams of three to 10 students to design and build a rocket that will climb to 800 feet with a payload of two raw eggs and stay aloft for 43 to 47 seconds. The eggs must then return to earth unbroken. The 2012 contest rules and registration information are available at www.rocketcontest.org.

"This is an important year for the Team America Rocketry Challenge," said AIA President and CEO Marion C. Blakey. "We're looking forward to an exceptionally exciting competition to mark TARC's 10-year record of challenging students to learn more about the aerospace industry in a fun and action-packed environment."

The top 100 TARC teams will be invited to compete at the National Finals on May 12, 2012, just outside of Washington, D.C. Student participants compete for $60,000 in prizes, scholarships and a Raytheon Company-sponsored trip to the 2012 air show in Farnborough, England, for an international fly-off.

More than 50,000 students have entered the competition since 2003. In a 2010 survey of TARC alumni, 92 percent of participants said they would encourage a friend to pursue a science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related career and four out of five respondents said TARC has had a positive impact on their course of study. The contest, along with other STEM programs supported by AIA members, is proving to be a catalyst for generating student interest in the aerospace and defense industry and building the skilled pipeline to replace a retiring workforce in the coming years.

AIA sponsors TARC with the National Association of Rocketry, NASA, the Defense Department, the American Association of Physics Teachers, Estes Rockets, and AIA member companies. The contest is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.  

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Founded in 1919 shortly after the birth of flight, the Aerospace Industries Association is the most authoritative and influential trade association representing the nation's leading manufacturers and suppliers of civil, military and business aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aircraft systems, space systems, aircraft engines, homeland and cybersecurity systems, materiel and related components, equipment services and information technology.

SOURCE Aerospace Industries Association