Florida Tech Students to Launch Another Rocket

– The Florida Tech capstone senior design team, FITSat III, will launch a full-scale, 20-foot rocket on May 2 at 12:30 p.m. in an unpopulated area of Palm
Bay. The rocket will simulate NASA’s Mars Airplane Package mission on earth.

The rocket, to be launched to an intended height of 10,000 feet, will carry an Aerial Exploration Vehicle (AEV) to collect and send data (altitude,
pressure and acceleration related to the rocket’s performance) and streaming video to the Ground Control Station. The GCS will store, analyze and display
the information and send real-time flight control commands back to the AEV.

Team members represent the College of Engineering departments of mechanical and aerospace engineering, computer science, computer engineering and
electrical engineering.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Melbourne has helped the team with the gift of $4,000 to fund the launch. The project has also been locally
sponsored by Intersil and WingCo. National sponsors include Freewave, Energy Laboratories Inc., NEFAR and Skylane Parachutes; Oryx Industries and Cesaroni
Motors are international sponsors.