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Citrus College Places Well in Rocket Competition

Left to right: Logan Tomes, Justin Frias, Tabitha Bailey, and Rebecca Thomas, members of the 2016 Citrus College Rocket Owls.

Two teams of Citrus College science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students recently participated in competitions organized by NASA. Citrus College serves Monrovia.

Eight Citrus College students known as the Rocket Owls joined groups from 47 other American colleges and universities in designing, constructing, and launching rockets as part of NASA’s annual Student Launch project in April. The Rocket Owls completed the challenge in fourth place, their best showing ever, after first place Vanderbilt University, second place University of Louisville, and third place Cornell University.

The Citrus College team had to design a rocket that could reach an altitude of one mile, deploy an automated parachute system, and safely land where it could be recovered.

Several days earlier, Citrus's Galactic Owls was the only group from California selected to participate in NASA’s international Human Exploration Rover Challenge, or HERC.  The five students from Citrus College travelled to Huntsville, Ala. to design, build, and race human-powered rovers April 7-9, 2016.

The Galactic Owls competed against college and university teams from throughout the United States, as well as teams from Russia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and India.  The students successfully completed the mandatory rover obstacle race and the optional sample collection challenge.

Source: Citrus press release

- Brad Haugaard

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