4-H ResistoJets Rocketry Club wins “Altitude Award” at NASA Student Launch Competition 2024

Award in the middle and high school classes of the NASA Student Launch Competition 2024

PUBLISHED ON July 14, 2024

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — On June 7, the ResistoJets Rocketry Club’s Morris County 4-H team was recognized for its first place “Altitude Award” in the middle and high school division of the 2024 NASA Student Launch Competition.

The NASA Student Launch Initiative 2024 virtual awards ceremony, hosted by the Marshall Space Flight Center, presented awards to overall category winners and additional prizes, including for safety, vehicle design, social media presence and STEM engagement.

More than 1,000 students from across the United States and Puerto Rico launched powerful amateur rockets and scientific payloads on April 13 north of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The rockets were part of the agency’s annual Student Launch Competition, in which students from colleges, universities, high schools, middle schools and informal education groups designed, built and launched rockets.

The ResistoJets Rocketry Club team, the only team from New Jersey, was one of the 70 teams that worked on the challenge for eight months and was among the 47 teams privileged to participate in the final events of launch week in the spring. The team was just 43 feet short of its target altitude of 3,900 feet, earning the Altitude Award in the Intermediate and Advanced Division.

Check out the product launches, including the interview with the Morris County team captured in this video. (Fast forward to 6:10:45 for the launch of the ResistoJets and 8:11:00 for the interview with the NJ Rocketry team!)

The awards ceremony will be archived on NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center YouTube channel.

The ResistoJets Rocketry Club team members shared their reactions to the overall experience.

Sean M., team leader: “Our team has really grown since last year – in terms of members and expertise”

Nurayn H.: “Thank you to 4-H and our other sponsors for their support!”

Holt E., Safety Officer: “Safety was our top priority on this project. Delivering all the necessary performance to make it to the final launch and having fun were the other two. It was a lot of work – and a lot of fun.”

Mia O.: “We learned a lot about time management and communication – and what we can do better in the future.”

Divya K.: “The payload challenge was really tough. We had a great design and it’s disappointing that it didn’t work out.”

Very few teams were able to deploy their payload on the last launch. The University Payload Challenge was to land “STEMnauts,” i.e. astronauts and their statistics on surviving the descent and impact upon landing, in a separate device and in a safe manner.

Learn more about the NASA Student Launch Challenge.

–Rutgers University