PVCC Student Launch Team takes Flight in NASA program

Skye Scott, assistant editor

Piedmont Virginia Community College is the only Virginia college, and one of three community colleges nationwide, to earn a spot in the NASA University Student Launch Initiative.

“NASA’s student launch program is an eight-month engineering project that challenges students at U.S. colleges and universities to design, build and fly high-power rockets and experimental payloads to meet a complex set of challenges specified by NASA,” according to an article on PVCC’s website. The article also states the team has begun work on their “six foot ‘subscale’ rocket to test the students’ designs.”

As well as participating in the Student Launch Initiative, Andrew Oxford, the team leader, wrote that PVCC’s team “is making a special effort on the educational engagement front” since they are a community college team and therefore have fewer resources than larger universities. Oxford also said there is a lot of support for community outreach, since it is part of PVCC’s mission statement.

Oxford stated  it is lonely being the only Virginia team, and he hopes that changes in the future “because it would be nice to have some more local competition.” The team is looking for students to join for next years competition, according to Oxford.

“There has been an incredible amount of support for this project from the teachers and administration at the school,” said Oxford, stating  PVCC has been “extraordinarily helpful” in preparing them for this opportunity.

For more information, and to stay updated on current projects, follow PVCC’s Student Launch Team on Twitter at @PiedmontLaunch, and on Facebook at Piedmont Student Launch Team. Also, visit their website at piedmontlaunch.org.