Smoke and Fire' Rise Over Utah Salt Flats as Student Rockets Soar in NASA Challenge May 17; NASA, ATK Present Preliminary Awards

A successfully flown rocket lays on the white hardpan of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Tooele County, Utah, awaiting retrieval by its student builders. It was flown May 17 during the "launchfest" that concluded the 2013-14 NASA Student Launch rocketry competition. The event included rocket launched by 16 student teams from 15 states, each of which designed, built, tested and launched their own vehicle, complete with three working science and engineering payloads. The annual NASA education event is designed to inspire young people to pursue studies and careers in the "STEM" fields -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics --  and to raise awareness of a much larger launch vehicle: NASA's Space Launch System, the nation's next flagship, set to carry new exploration missions into the solar system in the coming decades. The NASA Student Launch competition is organized by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and sponsored by ATK Aerospace Group of Magna, Utah. Organizers will name the grand-prize-winning school team in late May.