The Inaugural New River Valley Rocketry Launch, April 30th 2011
It was a beautiful spring Saturday afternoon on April 30th at the VT Kentland
Farms in rural Montgomery County. This was the inaugural launch of the New
River Valley Rocketry group, sponsored by VAST, and paired up with the VT AOE
(Aerospace and Ocean Engineering) team. The student AIAA team brought out their
new team project rocket with a 5 motor cluster, and the annual AOE/AIAA student
picnic shifted to our venue which added the smell of char broiled meat to the already
smoky scene. Between the newly VAST sponsored NRVR group, the AIAA rocket geeks
and all the hungry students and onlookers, there were probably between 50-60 in
attendance! It was a really fun, family friendly event and a huge success for
the local high power rocket crowd; possibly marking a new era of Rocketry for the New River
Valley and VT... Something that would make Homer Hickam himself proud. :) A
very special thanks to Bob Schoner (LCO) and Mike Ficco (RSO) from VAST for
setting up, overseeing and really running the launch and keeping everyone safe
and happy!
--Thomas Weeks, 2011-05-09
