Waimea High rocketeers launch for final time this school year

WAIMEA — Rockets reaching speeds of 200 miles per hour and altitudes of 1,000 feet captured the attention of many spectators on the Westside recently.

Students of the Waimea Aeronautical and Space Academy (WASA) gathered on Waimea High School’s athletic field for their final rocket launch of the school year.

Students in teacher Jerry Nishihira’s math class and teacher Brian Charnigo’s science class have been constructing and testing both scratch-built and kit-built rockets for several months in preparation for their final launch.

During the launch, students measured the height their rockets attained using hand-held, altitude-tracking devices.

The time to the rocket’s highest point in the sky, called apogee, was collected using stopwatches. Wind speeds and air temperatures were also collected.

This information was saved for later analysis in the classroom, where the students will calculate velocity, acceleration, force (in Newtons), and complete a comprehensive flight-data sheet along with a scale drawing of their rockets.

Finally, students will prepare typewritten evaluation/summary of their individual projects.

WASA students also initiated their new, five-rocket launch pad with the recent firings. The launch pad and electronics system were designed by Alan Chun of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility, and built along with Nishihira and Charnigo.

The new launch system enables students to drag race their rockets, allowing the launch of two rockets at once.

Each rocket was successfully launched and recovered.

The students are looking forward to next school year, hoping that the other high schools will be able to design, build and launch in a friendly competition at PMRF’s missile range next winter break.

The students who continue with the rocketry program next year will be moving up to study mid-power rocketry and video rocketry.

Maria Charnigo is a student at Waimea High School.