The space agency said Tuesday that almost 50 teams of middle school, high school, college and university teams from 22 states participated in the week-long event that sought to evaluate competitors’Â aerospace and engineering skills.
Teams looked to meet the goals that required rockets to fly to an altitude of one mile, deploy an automated parachute system and land in a state that allows the rocket to be reused.
NASA will announce overall winners in May, when the top three teams will each receive cash prizes and corporate sponsor Orbital ATK will award $5,000 to the first place winner.
A Rocket Fair event was also held for teams to deliver technical presentations on developed rocket and autonomous systems and receive feedback from NASA personnel and Orbital ATKâs team of rocket scientists and engineers.