3,800mph Sky Bolt rocket visits Blue Coat School

Mar 6 2008 by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post

IT COST £2m, travels at 3,800mph and was yesterday the centre of attention at one of Liverpool’s most successful schools.

Starchaser, the company hoping to pioneer the first tourism flights into space, delivered the sub-orbital “Sky Bolt” rocket to Wavertree’s Blue Coat school as part of National Science Week.

The rocket, which will take its four-minute maiden voyage into space next summer, was on show to pupils at the entrance to the Church Road school.

Fascinated Students admired the three-metre high rocket which will monitor the impact of radia-tion and low gravity in space.

Science Week at the school will also see students launch their own fuelled rockets later today and will include a visit by Russian Cosmonaut, Dr Alexander Martynov, formerly of Russian Mission Control next Monday.

Chris Gettel, the physics teacher who organised the events, said it was a great opportunity to enthuse the students.

Mr Gettel said: “When we found out Dr Martynov was visiting the school it seemed a good opportun-ity to organise other space-themed events. The rocket really helped to enthuse the students. There is a perception that science is male dominated and boring so the rocket has helped get the female students involved.

“Seeing something or building their own rockets as they are doing today, helps put science into context and make it real.”

Members of year seven, nine and sixth formers are today building 20 rockets from scratch.

After a briefing about propul-sion and the mechanics behind a rocket, the students will spend the day creating their rockets before launching them at 3.15pm. They will be launched from the school field and could travel 200-300 metres in the air.

Paul Howes, a schools outreach worker with Starchaser, said: “Each of our rockets costs £2m to develop and build and we rely on sponsorship. It’s great when we visit schools and encourage kids to have a look and learn about the rockets. These students are poten-tial engineers and scientists of the future and we want them to know that one day they can work in the space industry if they want to.“

Dr Alexander Martynov’s talk will be at the school’s Shirley Hall at 7pm on Monday. Tickets are available from the school office.

laurasharpe@dailypost.co.uk