Students get taste of space at Air Force Base
Summer camp: 50 youths get chance to build rockets to take flight 100 feet into the air
The rockets may not have reached the atmosphere, but they soared high enough to perhaps inspire a group of schoolchildren.
Students from the El Segundo area got the opportunity to build and launch their own rockets Friday from Los Angeles Air Force Base, as part of a first anniversary celebration for Space Systems Command, which is headquartered at the military installation.
Space Systems Command is the U.S. Space Force field command responsible for national security space systems and on-orbit defense capabilities. The command, which began in 1954, previously had been called the Space and Missile Systems Center before it joined the U.S. Space Force, created three years ago to bring all military space programs under one umbrella.
It hosted the event to celebrate its one-year anniversary and introduce young students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics career paths.
The Friday celebration brought 50 children from 5 to 12 years old, who attend Hilltop Christian Preschool and Day Camp, to the air base.
During the event, the students built spacecraft out of plastic pipe, paper cones and construction paper — and then flew them up to 100 feet in the air from the base's soccer field.
These events “make sure this age group is exposed to STEM and lets them know what they can do with STEM,” said Deputy STEM Director Jonathan Stroud, who leads science-related outreach events for the U.S. Space Force.
“We want to expose them to creating things at a young age to explore what they could do as careers,” Stroud said. “Science and technology can pique interest in things.”
The rockets the students made weren't equipped for space. But by undertaking the
effort, the students practice the real-world spacecraft production that happens on the base, said Chief Willie Frazier, senior enlisted leader of Space Systems Command.
“They have all the ideas that'll help us get to Mars and beyond,” he said.
One of the Space Force's goals, Stroud said, is to expand the youth STEM program to more Los Angelesarea schools and other Air Force bases around the nation.
After decorating their masterpieces and giving them names like Andy, Jupiter and The Yellow, the children put their rockets on the “launch pad,” gave them a few pumps of air and pressed the button to shoot them into the sky.
And then they watched them soar.
Some of the hand-size rockets went much higher and farther than others, which, Stroud said, depended on how they were built.
Paper wrapped too loosely around the pipe let air escape and shortened the flight. Too much air and the paper burst into pieces.
Fins shaped like triangles caused the rockets to spin but not go very far. But fins styled after the common paper airplane sent the rockets high and far.
The rocket-launch event culminated Hilltop's summer STEM week, said school and camp director Eromie Kumerage.
This has “definitely sparked a lot of interest in them,” Kumerage said of her students. “You can see every year after STEM week, all they talk about is being an astronaut and going to space.”
L.A. Air Force staffers spent the week before Friday's event visiting Hilltop to work with the kids, Kumerage said, teaching them about science and math concepts related to disciplines such as computer technology and earth science.
Michiko Riley, chief of community engagement for Space Systems Command, invited Hilltop, where her daughter attends, after seeing STEM week on the school and camp's summer schedule, which fell right in line with the anniversary.
“I hope when they come here and build rockets, they leave with the inspiration that ewverything is possible,” Riley said. “We want them to pursue careers in STEM. This is the future, so you've got to spark interest at a young age; if we wait until high school, that's too late.”
The engineering field is also in need of more women and people of color, and motivating students from those demographics to explore STEM jobs will help bolster the ranks over the long term.
Kumerage said the children in the summer day camp told her they don't want to just go to museums and Dodgers games. Rather, she said, they prefer activities like the one they did Friday — creating something and trying understand how it works.
“This could be just the spark,” Kumerage said, “that ignites a fire in someone wanting to be anything.”