Mississippi Students Eye Rocket Record
October 19, 2015
The Space Cowboys, Mississippi State University rocketry team, recently won the 2015 Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition in Green River, Utah. The competition involved more than 70 universities from seven countries, including teams from US engineering strongholds such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan.
The team of 23, most of whom were undergraduate engineering students, spent 10 months designing, building, and testing their rocket Asimov, named after I Robot author Isaac Asimov. At the competition, the rocket was judged for its design, flight, and the functionality of its payload.
Having taken top honors, the team is now turning its attention to breaking the world amateur speed record, which currently stands at around four times the speed of sound. In September, Asimov reached speeds of Mach 2.1 in testing, so the team has a long way to go before an attempt on the record can be made.
“Mississippi Students Eye Rocket Record.” The Engineer. N.p., 13 Oct. 2015. Web. http://www.theengineer.co.uk/students/latest/mississippi-students-eye-rocket-record/1021216.article.