Rocket Science For Kids

High school students from across the U.S. will gather Saturday for what's being billed as the world's largest model rocket contest.

More than 500 high school teams - over 9,000 students - competed in regional fly-offs to get to the championship, just outside Washington, D.C. The final 100 teams come from 36 states, all of them trying to prove they have the "Right Stuff."

On The Saturday Early Show, shuttle astronaut Roger Crouch was in Great Meadow, The Plains, Virginia to give the kids a tip or two about space flight.

The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR) are co-sponsoring the Team America Rocketry Challenge to commemorate the Centennial of Flight in 2003.

They say the main goal of the contest is to spark enthusiasm for careers in aerospace among high school students who are making college and career choices.

The challenge for the students is to design, build and fly a model rocket carrying two raw eggs to exactly 1500 feet. The rocket must use a commercially-made model rocket engine and weigh less than 3.3 pounds.

The NAR says each team, made up of a minimum three students, gets only one flight attempt at the final fly-off. A second attempt is allowed only if the team's rocket lands in a tree or other inaccessible place and cannot be returned for post-flight inspection of the eggs and altimeter.

There is some cash at stake for the students in the competition. The grand prize pool of $59,000 in cash and savings bonds will be shared by the top five teams. In addition, the top ten teams will compete for three $2,500 grants to design, build and launch an advanced rocket with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

And each of the top 25 teams will be invited to send one of their teachers to an advanced NASA rocketry workshop.