Photo By Patrick Maio | Meteorologists (sitting at computers) associated with a May 3 sounding rocket launch...... read more read more
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Girl Scouts and Home-schoolers Get STEM Experience at White Sands Rocket Launch
By Pat Maio, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division Public Affairs
When the sounding rocket shot upward at 6,800 mph to the edge of space over White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, a group of Girl Scouts and home-schooled kids broke out into a thunderous clap.
They also cheered as the first and second stages of the rocket broke away, and as the nose cone carrying a payload for a Solar Dynamics Observatory experiment headed higher on its trajectory. The purpose of the experiment was to collect data for certain satellites that occasionally need to be recalibrated to the sun with sensors — kind of like refocusing a camera for clarity.
“Some people were even screaming a little bit,” said Maddie Pacheco, daughter of Richard Pacheco, a technical project officer with Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division’s (NSWC PHD) White Sands Detachment.
“It was really cool to see the rocket launch,” she said of the successful May 3 launch. To watch the launch: https://youtu.be/Fn3Ybinmd9U
Maddie Pacheco got an inside look at the rocket launch because her father arranged a special viewing for Girl Scout Troop 69546 of the Desert Southwest, which included two Daisies (kindergarten to first grade); eight Brownies (second and third grades); and two junior Girl Scouts (fourth and fifth grades).
The dozen girls attended the scientific mission viewing along with six home-schooled children — two of whom were the son and daughter of the NSWC PHD’s White Sands Detachment Officer in Charge Cmdr. Adrian Laney.
“This was the first launch that my children were able to see,” Laney said about his kids — Dylan Laney and Zoe Laney.
“There was awe and noises of excitement as the countdown approached 10 seconds, and the kids joined in and loudly counted down from 10,” said Laney, who watched alongside the children, some of whom jumped in excitement as the rocket left the launch pad.
“As the first stage burned out and the vehicle coasted, there was a silent sense of trepidation as the seconds went by, then clapping and squeals of elation as the second stage ignited and the rocket continued to hurtle towards space,” Laney said.
The group viewed the launch from 7 miles away in a safe area in a building on the range.
“I saw smoke coming out of the rocket — looking like clouds — from behind, and the red rocket,” said Maddie, whose older sister Roxie also got to view the launch.
“I want to be an astronaut when I get older,” Maddie said.
Roxie also has big career plans. This summer, the sixth grader plans to attend a science program at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, and in the fall, begin a new school that offers a pathway in STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math.
Her ambitions are less celestial than her younger sister, and she hopes instead to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather as a forensics archeologist — a field that uses archaeological skills to assist with the location and recovery of human remains and forensic evidence.
‘Really cool’ launch
“It was really cool to see how it (the rocket) launched and how many people were working on it,” Maddie said.
The Girl Scouts and home-schoolers got a front row seat to the launch – thanks to collective efforts led by Richard Pacheco, Laney and others with the detachment.
The White Sands Detachment serves the Navy and is a tenant on the Army’s White Sands Missile Range, a sprawling 2 million acre military testing area.
The sounding rocket soared into space as part of a joint exercise run by Thomas Woods, a principal investigator involved with several NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite programs — and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), a research organization at the University of Colorado Boulder.
LASP, which specializes in designing, building and operating spacecraft and spacecraft instruments, is a research institute that investigates solar influences on the Earth.
Lasting impact
Watching the sounding rocket launch paid off for the Girl Scouts, as it helped them earn a Space Science Adventurer badge.
The badge requires that the girls investigate and learn about the sun, moon, planets and stars. They also must create a poster of the solar system, study the phases of the moon, and “just look up at the sky” as part of the badge’s requirements.
But getting a firsthand view of the rocket launch was an opportunity of a lifetime, according to Richard Pacheco.
He had the idea to bring his two daughters and others in the Girl Scouts troop to see a launch when they participated in a space festival associated with the Museum of Nature & Science in Las Cruces.
“Honestly, I was just trying to be a parent and support my child,” Pacheco said of the rocket launch. “This made such an impact on them.”
Pacheco received security approval from NASA officials to permit the kids onto White Sands Missile Range and from Laney, who embraced the idea and included his own kids and other home-schooled students to watch the launch.
Before watching the launch, the group toured parts of the range, where the kids got up close to a German V-2 rocket, the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile used in World War II, and the Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH, a drone anti-submarine helicopter.
The V-2 stands guard at the range’s museum — the same rocket that was test launched in the 1940s from the historic White Sands V-2 Launching Site.
STEM influences
White Sands Detachment Site Security Manager Janna Koenig, Victoria Rivas and Jan Counsman designed, printed and assembled VIP badges for the kids.
Brig. Gen. Eric Little, commander of the White Sands Missile Range, spoke to the group prior to the launch about outer space and his prior time as deputy commander for operations with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command from 2020 to 2021.
Billy Johnson, flight safety branch chief for White Sands Missile Range, talked about flight safety on the range.
Others also gave a hand on the range.
Angel De La Rosa, an engineer with the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, helped the group access range control and move to a safe building to view the NASA launch. The event was livestreamed on NASA TV, so once the rocket was beyond visible range, everyone in the building watched the camera footage streaming from the vehicle, which showed a breathtaking image of the curvature of the earth against the darkness of space, according to Laney.
NSWC PHD Project Officers Ray Watson and Chance Christensen, who work at the NASA rocket launch site, helped show the kids around the White Sands launch site.
“I can’t comment on the other children, but for my children, I can vouch that a seed has been planted among the many that my wife and I have already established,” Laney said. “This rocket launch will certainly stand out as one of the more exciting exposures to real engineering and science in their lives.”
He also noted the importance of impressing the children with a launch that underscored STEM applications.
“Our success as a nation and continued progress as a species depends on our ability to solve problems,” Laney said. “To solve the hardest problems we face, we need to cultivate diverse groups of critical thinkers in STEM fields, and that cultivation has to start early.
“Encouraging young children to pursue careers in engineering, science and technology may be one of the most important things I have done here at the Navy detachment,” he added.
| Date Taken: | 05.26.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 05.26.2023 17:03 |
| Story ID: | 445689 |
| Location: | WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, NEW MEXICO, US |
| Hometown: | WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, NEW MEXICO, US |
| Web Views: | 168 |
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White Sands Missile Range
Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme
