In touch with USA

On April 9, the Spacemodelling Sports Federation of Ukraine held a Zoom meeting with American amateur rocketry enthusiasts. Our friends from the United States wanted to show support for Ukrainian colleagues currently in a difficult situation. Our first online meeting was with athletes in temporarily occupied territories.

Roman Vinokurov volunteered to help us overcome the language barrier with translation.
 

he meeting plan was prepared by Catherine from California. She spoke to us directly from the launch platform of The American Rocketry Challenge (TARC). Incidentally, Catherine is the captain of one of TARC’s top ten teams last year.

The American Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is an annual American amateur rocketry competition for students in grades 6-12, sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR). Co-sponsors include NASA, the United States Department of Defense, the American Association of Physics Teachers and the Civil Air Patrol.

The essence of TARC, like the Ukraine Rocketry Challenge , is to design and launch a rocket with a precious cargo – a chicken egg- that survives intact. The lists of acceptable engines in both challenges are similar. Depending on the task of the year, there may be as many as 2 or 3 eggs.

The meeting started with getting to know each other, our athletes briefly introduced themselves and talked about their moods and how their lives have changed. Then we looked at photos from The American Rocketry Challenge and discussed the technical requirements, rules and equipment commonly used at launch. Team Catherine used a Cesaroni F79 engine with a total pulse of 67.8 N · s in the rocket. The control system was not used.
 

We also showed a photo from the Ukraine Rocket Challenge 2021. The Americans were very interested in the altimeter of our rocket models. It turned out that their altimeters do not have a display, and the height is measured by the number of sound signals it emits.

Thank you to our American friends for their support in such a difficult situation.

We look forward to more interesting meetings!