World’s Largest Sport Rocket Launched to Ignite Future Generation’s Passion for Space Industry

The United Launch Alliance has created another milestone in their company's history. That was when they held their annual Student Rocket Launch Sunday by launching the world's largest sports rocket.

The launching of the 50-foot-tall, 1,200-pound Future Heavy sports rocket at Fort Carson Army Post in Colorado was a success. That was because of the combined efforts for almost four years of 105 inters at Space Foundation and ULA and Ball Aerospace and the help of their 41 mentors. Fifteen teams of Colorado kids, ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade, also participated in the project by building 16 payloads on board, as reported by FOX 31.

The students say that building the project was so exciting but never an easy thing. It required every one of them to always work hard for it. But because the rocket has launched perfectly with all 16 payloads deployed, they say every pain and effort have all been worth it, as noted by Fox21 News.

The ULA president and CEO Tory Bruno said in a statement that the program's goal is to become an inspiration for students to pursue STEM careers, according to CS Monitor. By igniting the students' inner passion for the space industry, the company is looking forward for more people working in the field. "It is an exciting time to be in the space industry, and United Launch Alliance continuously works to excite the next generation of rocket scientists, astronauts, space entrepreneurs and enthusiasts," Tory Bruno said.

Because of the successful launch, the event has garnered a lot of attention in the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. But just like what the SpaceX spokesperson Phil Larson has said in an interview, sharing the enthusiasm to the public through social media is still not enough. Hands-on experiment such as this is what matters more.