Oct. 4 (UPI) — NASA announced the selection of 71 student teams that will build and launch amateur rockets and scientific payloads in a competition they hope will inspire the next generation of space explorers.
The 71 teams are divided into a college division and high-school/middle-school division.
The final on-site events will start April 30 with the final launches on May 3 at Bragg Farms in Toney, Ala., just north of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.
The 25th annual Student Launch Challenge is one of NASA’s Artemis Student Challenges, meant to encourage students in the science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, fields.
“Each year, NASA updates the university payload challenge to reflect current scientific and exploration missions,” NASA said in a statement. “For the 2025 season, the payload challenge will again take inspiration from the Artemis missions, which seeks to land the first woman and person of color on the Moon and pave the way for future human exploration of Mars.”
NASA also selected 75 student teams to start an engineering design challenge to build rovers that will compete next spring in the U.S. Space and Rocket Center near the Marshall Space Flight Center. It is also part of the Artemis Student Challenges.
Students from the 75 teams will present their engineering designs next year for piloting an astronaut-driven vehicle on the lunar surface while overcoming various obstacles.