August 12, 1996


RELEASE No.: 96-10


NASA Launches Student Atmospheric Experiment 

An experiment to study the atmosphere, designed and built by students from several Colorado universities, 
was successfully launched today from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, 
Wallops Island, VA.

The Nike-Orion sounding rocket carrying the experiment was launched from Wallops Island at 2:58 p.m. 
EDT. After flying to an altitude of 60 miles, the experiment was recovered in the Atlantic Ocean off the 
Virginia coast by the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched from Wachapreague, VA. 

The High Altitude Ozone Measuring and Educational Rocket (HOMER) was launched under the NASA 
Student Launch Program. The program provides undergraduate students practical, hands-on experience in 
the development of scientific suborbital payloads.

Ellen Riddle, co-project manager from the University of Colorado at Boulder said "the program provides 
good insight into working on projects. It gives the student enormous experience in payload development 
and working as a team." In the classroom, individual effort is the focus, while on the project, teamwork is 
the focus, according to Riddle. 

Riddle, a graduate student, said 50 students from four Colorado universities have worked on the project 
since March 1995 under the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. The schools included the University of 
Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and the 
University of Colorado at Denver. 

HOMER was the third atmospheric experiment flown by Colorado students since 1992. Each of the 
payloads has advanced in complexity. Riddle said, "we learned a lot about preparing missions from the last 
mission in 1994. Those lessons-learned were incorporated into this mission. This payload is more 
sophisticated with more advanced science instruments and data support systems," she said.

The Wallops Flight Facility provided technical guidance, rocket motors and hardware, recovery system and 
launch support for the mission. The Colorado Space Grant Consortium provided the telemetry system and 
science instruments.

The 1992 Colorado mission was a pilot project of the Student Launch Program. In addition to the 1994 
launch and the one today, two scientific balloons were flown in 1995 and another sounding rocket mission 
is scheduled for 1997.

The Student Launch Program is sponsored by the Office of Space Science, the Office of Human Resources 
and Education, and Office of Equal Opportunity at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

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