Rocket Launch Team Honored by NASA

And the winner is… Cedarville University’s NASA Student Launch team. 

In a surprise announcement, Cedarville’s NASA Student Launch team was named the recipient of the “Pay It Forward” award, sponsored by NASA’s Artemis program. The award was presented at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, last month during an online ceremony. 

The award is presented to only one of the 49 schools that participated in the launch challenge in 2024 and is in recognition of Cedarville’s excellence in promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects to elementary and middle school students. Cedarville was selected over teams from a field including Ohio State University and the United States Air Force Academy. 

“The Pay It Forward Award is given to the team that conducts impactful educational engagement events in their community or beyond. Educational engagement includes instructional, hands-on activities where students engage in learning a STEM-related concept by actively participating in an activity,” according to Marshall Space Flight Center Director Joseph Pelfrey, who presented the award. 

In April, the team competed in the NASA Student Rocket Launch in Huntsville, Alabama. Cedarville successfully launched the rocket it had designed, built and tested during the 2023–24 academic year. The Cedarville team placed 27th in the 49-team competition. 

With the launch behind them, the team began looking ahead to next year’s competition and were excited to unexpectedly receive the Pay It Forward Award sponsored by NASA’s Artemis Program. 

Artemis is the NASA program responsible for the next series of manned missions to the moon and future lunar exploration. Artemis I, the first rocket involved in this project, was launched on November 16, 2022. When it lifted off from Pad 39B, 120 Artemis flags were flown on the rocket. Cedarville’s team was presented one of these flags as part of the award. 

The leaders of the Artemis program are keenly interested in attracting the great engineers and scientists of tomorrow. 

While the rocket competition draws the most attention, leaders of the event challenge each school to participate in ways that benefit future learning and community development. Cedarville’s students shared presentations of their work in designing and building the rocket with students at Cedar Cliff in Cedarville, Ohio, and the homeschooled students who participate in the Symbiotica Learning Initiative that was developed and taught by faculty members in the University’s School of Education.  

Their presentation encouraged the younger students to build their own rockets in class with drinking straws and construction paper. This hands-on learning experience was a practical educational opportunity that helped the students learn about the principles of rocketry. 

”One of NASA’s requirements for the program involves student engagement,” said Dr. Tim Tuinstra, professor of electrical engineering and co-advisor to Cedarville’s rocket team. “Teams are expected to teach elementary and middle school students about rocketry and the exciting opportunities that exist in STEM-related fields. Our Cedarville team took this seriously.” 

All the team’s efforts to train young minds were important in this win, but it was the effort of Cade Gehman, a senior mechanical engineering major from Hot Springs, South Dakota, that set the team apart. In addition to instructing local students in Ohio, Gehman took it upon himself to schedule a rocketry demonstration at the elementary school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. 

Gehman’s initiative allowed the Cedarville team to contribute to the ongoing development of one of NASA's other Artemis student challenges, the First Nations Launch, designed to encourage diversity in STEM-related pursuits. 

NASA and Artemis are invested in reaching students at an early age to ensure future generations are excited about, and prepared for, the careers required for ongoing success in space exploration. 

“NASA has realized that much of the workforce that has been designing and building for space exploration are getting older, so there is a real push to fill the pipeline for the future. That is why they are finding ways to engage and excite students all the way down to kindergarten about STEM-related fields,” said Tuinstra. “They really want to plant in the minds of young students the idea that they can work in the space program.” 

“What pleased me about this award is the fact that this is what Cedarville is all about. Our students are prepared professionally, but they also take it upon themselves to invest in others,” said Tuinstra.