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Two views of a rocket launch
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Editors Note, August 17, 2016: NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility said in a statement following today’s launch, “Data was received from most of the student experiments. However, the payload was not recovered as planned. NASA will investigate the anomaly.”

A Terrier Improved-Malemute suborbital sounding rocket carrying a payload developed by University of Hawaiʻi Community College students launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, August 17. The rocket launched around 7:33 a.m. EST (around 1:33 a.m. HST) and reached a height of 95.29 miles.

A team of three mentors and eight students was at Wallops for the launch. The initiative known as Project Imua involves students from four UH Communty College campuses. The project provides them with real-life hands-on aeronautical engineering experiences with NASA. This was the Project Imua team’s second NASA launch and second payload.

Two views of a rocket launch
The Project Imua payload launch

Their second payload, developed by students from four community college campuses, was named PrIME (Project Imua Multiple Experiment). Included in PrIME:

  • A neutron-gamma ray detector designed and fabricated by Kauaʻi CC, a prototype, which is being tested for a possible future orbital flight.
  • An innovatively powered rocket designed by Windward CC and fabricated using a 3-D printer. ScubeR (Super Simple Sublimation Rocket) will be deployed at the peak of the NASA sounding rocket’s flight.
  • Honolulu CC has configured two on-board Mobius Action cameras to record video and pictures of the flight and has selected a motion tracker to record g-forces.
  • The Kapiʻolani CC team developed the payload’s interface boards for power and conditioning and data processing and transfer, as well as the housing for these circuits.

The rocket had been scheduled to launch August 16, but the launch had to be scrubbed due to boats being in the hazard area off the coast.

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

UH News video: Project Imua team ready for second NASA launch

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