Every year, Atherton hosts a rocket launch for JCPS’ engineering departments. The launch will be happening on Monday, April 20th, down on the football field. Engineering classes make and design their rockets to make them fly as high as possible. Whoever can go the highest wins! Outside of that, there’s also a competition for best design.
The rockets have altimeters attached to them to gauge the distance they flew. They are launched multiple times (if they are not damaged) to make sure the results are as accurate as possible. When the parachute comes out, and the rocket falls to the ground, selected students run to go find them.
Kaitlynn Douthit (12) has been doing the launch since her sophomore year.
“Its been such a great experience, and especially in Mr. D’s class. I love him and everything we do there, and this is probably my favorite event,” said Douthit.
Douthit’s favorite rocket she launched was the one from her junior year. It was designed to look like Stitch’s rocket from the movie Lilo and Stitch.
This being her last year at Atherton, she is very grateful to have been able to compete every year.
“It’s something I always look forward to,” Douthit said.
She believes that her launch went amazing, and wouldn’t change anything.
Braden Green (12) also participated in Atherton’s annual rocket launch, this being his second year doing the event.
His team’s rocket was designed to look like a White Monster can.
“We decided to do the White Monster instead of the normal monster because it’s so popular. The fins designs are rounder so that it’s more aerodynamic,” explained Green.
He believes that although the altimeter didn’t read the rocket’s height, that his launch went pretty good.
“The fin broke so we can’t go again, but it was very fun regardless,” Green said.
He enjoys seeing all the rockets launch, and enjoys the experience.
This year is Milo Westbrook’s (10) first time participating in the event.
“Its been really cool. I like seeing everyone set up, and it’s been a fun process of seeing everyone build the rockets and working together in groups,” said Westbrook.
His team’s rocket is designed to look like a burger with one really big pickle, named “The Pickle Pounder.”
Westbrooke’s teammate, Boone Nishida (10), was very happy about the rocket’s performance, although, they weren’t exactly sure how high it went.
“None of the altimeters are working, so it’s a lot of guesswork,” said Nishida.
The last time Riley Graves (12) worked on a rocket was his sophomore year, and is excited to be a part of the launch again.
“I like spending time with friends and also just seeing the rockets that we’ve spent time making get to launch,” said Graves.
Afterwards, he said that his team forgot to put paper inside of the rocket, so the parachute burnt, meaning the rocket had to be thrown away. Besides that, he believes his team did splendidly.
This event gives great opportunities to JCPS’ engineering departments. Allowing students to participate in designing and launching their own rocket shows them that their opportunities are endless.
