Rockets and rocketeers of all sizes and shapes came together on a recent morning for the second annual Launch Day at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands near Kekaha. Even Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste lent
Rockets and rocketeers of all sizes and shapes came together on a recent morning for the second annual Launch Day at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands near Kekaha.
Even Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste lent a hand to send one video-equipped rocket a thousand feet above Barking Sands.
Headed up by Waimea High School teachers Jerry Nishihira and Brian Charnigo, the event is a project-based learning tool for the teachers, but will hopefully grow to a statewide competition.
“I am currently trying to build this rocketry program up to be an inter-school competition with many different competitive events,” said Nishihira, an algebra teacher.
“Within three to four years I hope to make it a statewide competition similar to our athletic championships.”
Although not in competition, sixth-grade students from Eleele School also joined in with an impressive display of rocketry.
Nishihira said that the event wouldn’t be possible without the help of leaders at PMRF. Giving credit to PMRF’s Alan Chun, Dan Momohara and Cmdr. Bill Murphy, Nishihira said use of the wide-open space of the base allows the students to finish their projects with flair.
A large part of the effort also went to PMRF’s junior professionals, or “JPs.” These recent college graduates are new hires on the base, and coordinated many of the details.
But most importantly, the JPs — local kids who pursued technical degrees in college — served as role models both on launch day and during a visit to Waimea High School earlier this month. Abraham Nihipali, Arnold Alcisto and Richard Cajimat provided judging for the scratch-built category of rockets at the school, as well as gave motivational speeches about pursuing college and technical jobs.
Nihipali said the purpose of their speeches was to get the students to “dream big,” and to show them that “as local kids, we could get degrees in engineering and engineering jobs. We talked about college life and how we got our jobs,” he said.
“In all, we tried to inspire these kids to keep learning and to follow their dreams,” said Nihipali.
But the help provided is certainly a labor of love for PMRF’s employees, as the real “rocket scientists” and engineers built their own model rockets to join in with the kids. Training Department Head Ralph Conway impressed the crowd with the most powerful launch of the day, using a rocket equipped with an “H-type” engine, compared to most of the rockets launched with engines in the A through C categories.
At the end of the official launches and demonstrations, the pads were made available for guest and family launches. All together, nearly 50 models flew in the early morning West Kaua‘i sky.
For more information on the launch day activities, please visit HNLC.org.
Tom Clements is the PMRF public affairs officer. He may be reached at 335-4740 or tom.clements@navy.mil.
