Rowan team soars in Spaceport America Cup

Rowan University engineering and science students enjoyed an (almost) out-of-this-world experience recently when they competed in the Spaceport America Cup in June in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Going up in a rocket-launch competition against more than 130 teams from other colleges and universities, the Rowan American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition group advised by Dr. John Schmalzel, Electrical & Computer Engineering, launched “The Fifth Day” to 9,633 feet, about 3 percent off the target goal of 10,000 feet.

Tyler Harlow, 22, of Ocean Township, led the students in the event sponsored by the Experimental Sound and Rocketry Association and Spaceport America.

Harlow, a 2018 grad now working for Lockheed Martin in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, said the Rowan team was composed of seven engineering students and one physics student.

The team entered The Fifth Day (taking the name from a speech given last year in which the director of the competition referred to a general who claimed that if you have four lousy days, you still work for the fifth the day -- when people deliver their product) launched The Fifth Day in the 10,000-foot (there also was a 30,000-foot) contest using a commercial motor (there also was a student-developed motor contest).

The Fifth Day team members are: mechanical engineering majors Andrew Mato, Michael Foye, Collin Westcott and Scott Melson; electrical engineering majors Aaron Guidarelli, Ramzi Habiby and Tyler Harlow; and physics major Nate Dolnak.