NSU team sends payload on NASA rocket at RockOn workshop

NATCHITOCHES, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — A team from the Northwestern State University (NSU) Department of Physical Science participated in NASA's RockOn workshop in Virginia.

Dr. Damien Tristant, associate professor of physics and coordinator of the Physical Science Department, led students Shae Wetzel of Pitkin and Morgan McCrory of Benton on the weeklong science workshop sponsored by the Louisiana Space Grant Consortium (LaSPACE).

The RockOn program allows participants the chance to assemble and test the payload for a sounding rocket.

Sounding rockets are rockets primarily used to carry scientific instruments into space for short-duration experiments. They are predominantly suborbital, only traveling to the upper atmosphere or near space.

During the weeklong course, the NSU team soldered, pr