Penn State students involved with the University's Learning Factory were busy over the past several days packing up the fruits of their labor to be shipped to NASA. The Spirit Sounding Rocket payload project, will be launched into space between June 27 and July 6 from Andoya, Norway. The suite of six experiments will collect data during the rocket's flight to 180 km and back down to the Arctic Ocean. During this time data will be continuously downlinked to the ground for post-flight analysis. The project started in August 2003 and has involved more than 50 students from aerospace, electrical and computer engineering. It is an international collaboration with nine students from three Norwegian universities, and is taking place in conjunction with NASA Wallops Flight Facility. NASA is providing testing and launch support for the project. This is just one example of projects that take place through Penn State's Learning Factory. For more information about the Learning Factory, visit http://www.lf.psu.edu/ online. For photos, visit http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2006_05_08_rocket/ online.
University Park
Students ship Spirit Sounding Rocket to NASA
Senior aerospace engineering majors Brian Pomeroy and Bruce Davis place the skin over the payload for the trip to NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. For more photos, click on the image above. Credit: Learning Factory students. All Rights Reserved.
Last Updated November 18, 2010