USU Rocket Team Returns from Florida Shuttle Launch

Seventeen current and former USU mechanical and aerospace engineering students and one USU computer science student attended the Space Shuttle STS-130 launch at Kennedy Space Center in Florida Feb. 8.

 

The shuttle launch trip was a reward for the USU “rocket team’s” winning the NASA-sponsored University Student Launch Initiative. The USU team took top honors for the second year in a row. The team braved unseasonably cold weather with high winds blowing off the ocean, and it was forced to stay up all night for two consecutive nights. The initial launch attempt early Sunday morning was scrubbed due to weather with nine minutes left in the countdown. The team was rewarded for its perseverance, however, as Endeavor roared skyward in a blaze of seemingly cosmic fire at 4:14.08 a.m. EST. This was the last night launch of the space shuttle system.

 

For the STS-130 mission, the space shuttle Endeavor lifted six astronauts, the Tranquility living module and the Cupola to the International space station. The long-anticipated cupola is the ISS equivalent of “Captain Piccard’s” window and features a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and another in the center that provide a 360-degree view around the station. Once the cupola is installed, the panoramic Earth view from this portal will be spectacular.

  

The team was accompanied by Dr. Stephen A. Whitmore, Rocket Team faculty mentor and MAE assistant professor. USU students attending the launch were: Jessica Anderson, Phillip Anderson,Heather Williams, Shaun Copeland, Kyle Jeppson, Michael Phillips, Shane Robinson, Zachary Peterson, Luke Hanks, Alex Wouden, David Winget, Shannon Eilers, Amy Jo Bowdidge, Matthew Wilson, Bowen Masco, Nicholus McKee, Tyler DeSpain and Stanford Rosen.

 

 

Writer and contact: Tim Vitale, 435-797-1356, tim.vitale@usu.edu