NASA-Marshall Student Launch @ Southern Thunder 2004 Launch

NASA-Marshall has been sponsoring a program called the Student Launch Initiative for several years now. It's a program where several selected high schools are awarded a contract to build a rocket to launch a 1/2 lb payload to 1 mile, and 2 miles up for college teams. In the course of the project, the student teams learn about the design process, well as design, test, and fly their rockets. HARA has been working closely with NASA on this program (Vince H and I actually get to work it from both the HARA and NASA sides ) since the program's inception 3 or 4 years ago. This year, due to circumstances that have worked to our advantage, the SLI flyoff will be held in conjunction with Southern Thunder 2004 (Manchester, TN, May 1st and

2nd). Info on the SLI Program can be found There's a link to a neat video that NASA made last year that gives some good insight into what this program is all about.

The Southern Thunder 2004 Launch has been shaping up to be an outstanding launch anyway, but now it's gotten huge. We now have three major motor vendors planning to attend (Magnum, Merlin Missiles, and Star Rocketry). We're still working out the pad layout, but believe that with the resources of the three sponsoring clubs, we'll be able to bring over 50 pads (modroc, MPR, and HPR) to bear. We've got waivers to 22K from 10 to noon on both Saturday and Sunday, and we have a 2K waiver extending to 9pm Saturday for a night launch. The waiver is 10K otherwise.

For those interested in more information on the ST2004 launch, please visit

Thanks, Chuck