Douglas grad participates in rocket experiment

University of Nevada, Reno, mechanical engineering student Gabe Herz, a 2003 Douglas High graduate, was one of nearly 100 university instructors and students from 21 states who saw their experiments launched in a rocket at 5:30 a.m. Friday.

They successfully launched a NASA suborbital sounding rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

During the preceding week, students had been at Wallops preparing their experiments through a week-long workshop.

The two-stage Terrier-Orion rocket carried the experiments to an altitude of 73 miles. The experiments were recovered and the students successfully retrieved data from their experiments.

Herz, with UNR professors Eric Wang and Jeffery LaCombe, built a payload that collected radiation data, in addition to accelerations that the rocket experienced during its suborbital flight.

The program was conducted in partnership with the Colorado and Virginia Space Grant Consortia with support from NASA. The purpose of the workshop was to teach future scientists and engineers first hand how to develop experiments for flight on sounding rockets.