NCC Engineering Students Complete Balloon Launch and Payload Recovery

Members of Nash Community College’s High Altitude Balloon Team, “The Nashtronauts”, launched this year’s payload on the campus on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. The balloon launch and payload recovery are the final steps of a six-month-long, open-ended Engineering project.

At the beginning of the academic year, NC Space Grant provides a list of rules and basic components that must be included in the balloon’s payload. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 statewide ballooning competitions were canceled. However, a generous donation to the NCC Foundation allowed the Nashtronauts to continue working and learning. Alan and Ashley Moore established the Moore Family Fund for College Support that provides funding for the NCC Foundation Campus Mini-Grants and the Student Ambassador programs. The project was funded through a campus mini-grant.

The majority of the students on the team plan to transfer to a university to major in engineering. Most of their course work at Nash Community College is theoretical, classroom instruction. The High Altitude Balloon Team provides the students an opportunity to apply the skills they’ve learned in the classroom to real-life situations. The students learn about federal regulations, proper documentation, planning, teamwork, research, programming, soldering, working with various electrical sensors and components, and so much more.

For more information, please contact Shilo Lawrence, NCC Director, Associate in Engineering and Transfer and Professor, Mathematics & Engineering at (252)451-8398 or smlawrence923@nashcc.edu.