NASA rocket launches UH’s scientific payload into space

A two-stage Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket launched on 12 August 2015.

University of Hawaiʻi community college students watched their scientific payload spin into space on August 12 when a two-stage Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket was launched around midnight Hawaiʻi time from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Students from Honolulu Community College, Kapiʻolani Community College, Kauaʻi Community College and Windward Community College are part of a collaboration known as Project Imua, a joint faculty-student enterprise for designing, fabricating and testing payloads.

“You just see the thing ignite and shoot off into the sky. It’s the most amazing feeling in the world, especially since we’ve been working on it for over a year. And we are finally seeing all of our hard work pay off,” said Kapiʻolani CC student Kalaʻimoana Garcia.

UH’s main Hawaiʻi Space Grant Consortium campus, which provides technical assistance through Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory’s resources and personnel.

Read more about it and watch the video report in the UH System News and read about it in the Pacific Business News.