UH Community College team launches student-built rocket in competition

VIDEO NEWS RELEASE

University of Hawaiʻi
Contact:
Kelli Abe Trifonovitch, (808) 228-8108
Chief Communications Officer, UH Office of Communications
Posted: Sep 16, 2022

The Project Imua team with their rocket in Black Rock, Nevada.
The Project Imua team with their rocket in Black Rock, Nevada.
Nikki Arakawa, Caleb Yuen, Alyson Wirtz, D'Elle Martin
Nikki Arakawa, Caleb Yuen, Alyson Wirtz, D'Elle Martin
Caleb Yuen, D'Elle Martin and Alyson Wirtz built and launched rockets seeking certifications.
Caleb Yuen, D'Elle Martin and Alyson Wirtz built and launched rockets seeking certifications.
D'Elle Martin, Project Imua, Honolulu CC, with the rocket she built.
D'Elle Martin, Project Imua, Honolulu CC, with the rocket she built.

Link to video and sound (details below):  https://bit.ly/3S1dfyW

WHAT: A team of students and faculty from the University of Hawai‘i Community Colleges launched a 10.5-foot custom rocket they built in the ARLISS (A Rocket Launch for Student Satellites) 2022 Come-Back competition.  

  • This year’s ARLISS competition included 15 teams, including teams from Japan, Mexico and Costa Rica.

WHO: Project Imua is a faculty-student enterprise of multiple UH Community College campuses in affiliation with the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium. Project Imua’s primary mission is to experiment with high-powered rocketry and to design and fabricate small payloads for space flight. Today’s mission was a mixed success.

  • The rocket flew and one parachute deployed.

  • The rocket contained a land rover designed and assembled by Windward CC  that failed to deploy.

  • An atmospheric detector designed and assembled by Honolulu CC collected data during the rocket flight.

WHEN:  September 16, 2022

WHERE: Black Rock, Nevada

OTHER FACTS:

  • Seven members of the Project Imua Mission 11 team are also launching individual rockets they have built in the XPRS (eXtreme Performance Rocket Ships) event September 16–18 to earn various National Association of Rocketry (NAR) certifications.
  • Project Imua Mission 11 is fully funded by the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium.

VIDEO:

BROLL: (1 minute, 8 seconds)

0:00-0:13 - launch with countdown
0:13-0:20 - students watch rocket fly
0:20-1:08 - pre-launch shots of rover, students walking out and setting up the rocket

SOUNDBITES:

Note:  We provided two options for each soundbite, since the video we received was a small size.

D’Elle Martin, Project Imua, Honolulu CC (4 seconds)

“When we saw it coming down, we only saw one ‘chute so we knew that something was a little bit off.”

Caleb Yuen, Project Imua, Honolulu CC (9 seconds)

“I think it’s important for all the students of community colleges and universities to come out here to learn the fundamentals and the basic rules of rocketry.”

Martin (19 seconds)

“Both Honolulu Community College and Windward Community College have a lot of funding and programs that students can get into. They don’t need to be in STEM related careers.  I’m an architecture major so it’s pretty fun and it exposes you to a lot of the possibilities and research projects you can get into.”