Head's Newsletter 22 October 2021

UK ROCKET FINALS — October 2021

In June we asked our Year 12 students to complete an extended project to help with their UCAS applications. One of the groups designed and built a rocket to enter into UKROC - the UK's national rocketry competition. Towards the end of the Summer term we took the bus to Grists to launch the rocket. The bus driver was suspicious of what looked like a ground to air missile but eventually allowed us on after a brief inspection. The launches went well but only three of the four motors fired and this caused the rocket to veer off and not reach the required altitude. At that point I breathed a sigh of relief that we hadn't hit any of the neighbouring houses and went on summer vacation. The students were undeterred though. They continued to work on the

rocket over the Summer, and soon into the Autumn term had arranged another launch at a farm somewhere near Leatherhead. This time all four motors fired thanks to Ash's new and improved ignition circuit and this allowed the rocket to reach the qualification altitude. We were on their way to the finals!

The finals were held in Buckingham at the BMFA headquarters. After an early start and a long but comfortable journey we met five other schools and listened to the safety briefing. Following on from that the students made a presentation to the judges which was scored and then added to their rocket altitude score. Each team had only one flight to qualify. Our motors all ignited but after about 20 metres the rocket suddenly broke up. We could not

understand how this happened but suspected that one of the motors had malfunctioned. We were out of the competition and it wasn't even our fault! After pleading with the judges to give us a second launch, the second rocket took off

beautifully ... but then also broke up mid - flight just as the first did. As we sat on the minibus home scratching our heads there were no regrets - just more challenges to overcome and then hopefully more launches!