A NASA sounding rocket blasted into space on August 12, carrying with it a scientific experiment designed and built by University of �鶹��ý Community College students—marking the fifth time a payload has reached space.

Windward CC student Ryan Vanairsdale and Honolulu CC student Teal Hoffman witnessed the launch at 12 a.m. HST from NASA‘s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

“That was really cool. I can’t think of anything else to say—it’s just really cool,” Vanairsdale exclaimed.

Hoffman added, “Whatever just happened, I did not expect, and we’re just hoping that our experiment is working.”

Common goal

The Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket reached an altitude of about 100 miles before parachuting into the Atlantic Ocean.

Among the eight student-built experiments from across the nation selected for the program, Project Imua Mission 14 aimed to test a sublimation-fueled motor in space conditions, advancing understanding of alternative propulsion systems.

The Project Imua team included seven students and staff from Windward CC and Honolulu CC. Windward CC students designed the deployment system and power distribution, and conducted data analysis, while Honolulu CC students developed video capture circuits and managed data handling.

“For me, Project Imua is about teamwork. Itʻs about two community college campuses coming together and working together towards a common goal,” Hoffman said.

Moving forward

After recovery from the ocean, students received their payload for data retrieval and post-flight analysis. The hands-on work is central to Project Imua’s mission—its name means “to move forward” in ʻō������� �鶹��ý—offering UH Community College students real-world experience in high-power rocketry, engineering design and space science.

Read more stories from Project Imua

Since its first launch in 2015, Project Imua has given dozens of students the chance to contribute to space missions, work alongside NASA engineers and bring their classroom learning to space.

This week’s UH News Image of the Week is from ‘s Joseph Ciotti, recently retired professor and Project Imua manager.

He shared: “The earth from 100 miles up. Windward Community College’s innovative sublimation rocket ScubeR photographed at apogee by Honolulu Community College’s onboard deck camera. NASA’s discarded Malemute second stage rocket visible at lower left. Funded by the �鶹��ý Space Grant Consortium, Mission 10 was UH Community Colleges Project Imua’s fourth payload launched into space from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.”

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A team of students and faculty from the launched a 10.5-foot custom rocket they built in the 2022 Come-Back competition in Nevada. This year’s ARLISS competition hosted 15 teams, including teams from Japan, Mexico and Costa Rica. The UH team was the lone U.S. representative.

“Here in the Black Rock desert, we are the only American team representing,” said Caleb Yuen from Honolulu CC. “I think it’s important for all the students of community colleges and universities to come out here to learn the fundamentals and the basic rules of rocketry.”

is a faculty-student enterprise of multiple UH Community College campuses in affiliation with the �鶹��ý Space Grant Consortium. Project Imua’s primary mission is to experiment with high-powered rocketry and to design and fabricate small payloads for space flight.

More Project Imua stories

The September launch, or Project Imua Mission 11, was a mixed success. The rocket flew and one of two parachutes deployed properly. The rocket contained a land rover designed and assembled by that did not exit the rocket and maneuver autonomously as planned. An atmospheric detector designed and assembled by collected data during the rocket flight that will be analyzed by the team.

“That’s rocket science,” said Project Imua Manager Joe Ciotti, a Windward CC professor. “But like the recent Artemis setbacks, each failure is taken as an opportunity to learn and improve for the next flight.”

Seven members of the Project Imua Mission 11 team also launched individual rockets they built in a event to earn various National Association of Rocketry certifications.

“Both Honolulu Community College and Windward Community College have a lot of funding and programs that students can get into. They don’t need to be in STEM-related careers,” said Honolulu CC team member D’Elle Martin. “It’s pretty fun and it exposes you to a lot of the possibilities and research projects you can get into.”

Stay tuned for more about Project Imua Mission 12 in 2023.

—By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

Get ready for launch! A team of seven students and faculty from the University of �鶹��ý Community Colleges is building an 10.5-foot custom rocket to launch in the annual (A Rocket Launch for Student Satellites) competition in Black Rock, Nevada scheduled for September 12–15. Six members of the Project Imua Mission 11 team are also building their own rockets to launch in the (eXtreme Performance Rocket Ships) event September 16–18 to earn various National Association of Rocketry (NAR) certifications.

is a faculty-student enterprise of multiple UH Community College campuses in affiliation with the �鶹��ý Space Grant Consortium. Project Imua’s primary mission is to experiment with high-powered rocketry and to design and fabricate small payloads for space flight.

For Mission 11, will launch the team’s rocket at the ARLISS 2022 Come-Back competition. The rocket will contain a land rover designed and assembled by Windward CC that will land by parachute and autonomously make its way back to a predesignated target. An atmospheric detector designed and assembled by will collect data during the rocket flight.

Read more stories from Project Imua

During the XPRS event, students Caleb Yuen, D’Elle Martin and Alyson Wirtz and mentors Shidong Kan and Helen Rapozo will launch their own custom-built rockets to earn a level 1 NAR certification. Students Nikki Arakawa, Yuen, Martin and Wirtz and mentor Kan will also launch their individual custom-built rockets to earn a level 2 NAR certification.

“Project Imua helps students practice the good experience of being a scientist,” said Yuen. “This is my second year of being in this program and I’m taking it just like having on-the-job experience right now.”

Project Imua Mission 11 is fully funded by the �鶹��ý Space Grant Consortium.

—By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

“Out of this world” is one way to describe the incredible video captured by a University of �鶹��ý Community College experiment nearly 100 miles above Earth.

On August 11, a 44-foot NASA sounding rocket blasted off from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia carrying a scientific experiment designed by Project Imua Mission 10 students into space.

Project Imua is a joint faculty-student enterprise of multiple UH Community College campuses in affiliation with the that provides students with real-world, project-based learning opportunities. students designed and built a camphor-powered sublimation rocket (named ScubeR, for Super Simple Sublimation Rocket) that was deployed at the peak of the NASA rocket’s flight—at 99 miles altitude. The team designed two cameras and measurement devices to monitor the sublimation rocket’s motion.

Project manager Joe Ciotti, a Windward CC professor, calls the video captured by that Project Imua camera in space “visually spectacular.”

Ciotti continued, “The opening shows the limb of the Earth against the blackness of space and clouds covering the Atlantic. It then pans to show the second stage (of the sounding rocket) that separated moments ago, spinning as it falls back to Earth. Nearby is the outer protective skirt, tumbling after being dropped from the payload section. …(later), ScubeR begins to be deployed in the straight direction it was designed to follow.”

Project leader and Windward CC student Jared Estrada said, “Working the math and sticking with the science and engineering process we believe we have something that works and ultimately leads to success within the mission. I think it’s very successful.”

It’s been an amazing experience for the aspiring research and development physicist and the 15-member team.

Estrada said, “I would say Mission 10 is an excellent opportunity for students and overall awe inspiring for the scientific and engineering process.”

For Caleb Yuen, the Honolulu CC student responsible for developing the video cameras, the views of space were breathtaking.

Next up, Project Imua Mission 11. The team plans to launch a custom-built rocket equipped with a land rover and atmospheric detector at the ARLISS 2022 Come-Back competition in Nevada in September.

—By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

Mission accomplished! At 12:08 p.m. HST on August 11, 2022, a 44-foot NASA sounding rocket blasted off from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia carrying a scientific experiment designed by University of �鶹��ý Community College students about 91 miles into space.

Project Imua is a joint faculty-student enterprise of multiple UH Community College campuses in affiliation with the that provides students with real-world, project-based learning opportunities. Students from Windward CC and Honolulu CC had been working on Project Imua Mission 10 for months and were delighted to see their “baby” finally take flight.

students designed and built a camphor-powered sublimation rocket that was deployed at the peak of the NASA rocket’s flight—at approximately 91 miles altitude. The team designed a camera system and inertial measurement unit devices to monitor the sublimation rocket’s motion.

Project leader Jared Estrada, a Windward CC student, said, “The launch was an amazing spectacle that served as a crowning achievement for the scientific endeavors of Project Imua.”

Project Imua provided hands-on rocketry experience both in �鶹��ý and at NASA. In June, two students traveled to the Wallops facility to run final tests on their Project Imua payload.

• Related UH News story: Payload for space launch tested at NASA facility, June 26, 2022

A few days prior to the launch, the rest of the Project Imua team was in Virginia for fine tuning and final integration.

“The hands-on, authentic research conducted by our UH Community College students challenges them to set their sights on lofty goals, while building the demanding skills required in high-tech, STEM careers,” said Project Manager Joe Ciotti, a Windward CC professor. “They’ve learned through their intense year-long collaboration with NASA engineers that, when it comes to dreams and achievements, the sky’s the limit.”

More Project Imua stories

After reaching its peak, the payload carrying the experiments descended by parachute and landed in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Virginia coast. Plans were for the students to receive their flown experiments and any stored data after the payload was recovered from the ocean.

More Project Imua missions are scheduled to fly for UH’s future rocket scientists.

—By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

Editors note, August 10: NASA postponed the August 10 launch until August 11, due to bad weather at Wallops Flight Facility.

Editors note, August 9: NASA postponed the August 9 launch until August 10, when payload recovery conditions are projected to be more favorable.

A team from the has spent the past week at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia preparing for a rocket to launch the scientific experiment they designed and built into space. Launch is scheduled for August 9, between 5:30–9 p.m. EDT (11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. HST), with live coverage on the .

is a faculty-student enterprise of multiple UH Community College campuses in affiliation with the that provides students with real-world, project-based learning opportunities. This includes experimenting with high-power rocketry, and designing and fabricating small payloads for space flight. In the Hawaiian language, imua means to move forward.

The students have been collaborating for months. students designed and built a camphor-powered sublimation rocket that should be deployed at the peak of the NASA rocket’s flight—at approximately 91 miles altitude. The team designed a camera system and inertial measurement unit devices to monitor the sublimation rocket’s motion.

Their experiment is one of six developed by college and university teams across the nation that will launch on a 44-foot-tall Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket. After reaching its peak, the payload carrying the experiments will descend by parachute and is expected to land in the Atlantic Ocean, about 64 miles off the Virginia coast. The students will receive their flown experiments and any stored data after the payload is recovered from the ocean.

“I’m looking forward to launch because of all the hard work we’ve put into this project to really make sure it succeeds,” said Honolulu CC student Frank Bolanos IV. “There’s a lot of work that went into it and a lot of time and waiting and excitement. So to see it actually go up is going to be incredible.”

The experiments are being flown through the in conjunction with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. RockSat-X gives students at post-secondary institutions the experience of building experiments for space flight.

“RockSat-X provides students an opportunity to improve their skills through experiment development and then analyzing their data following the launch,” said Giovanni Rosanova, chief of the Sounding Rockets Program Office at Wallops. “Programs like these are vital in preparing students for careers after graduation.”

Mission 10 represents the fourth time that a UH Project Imua payload will be launched into outer space. The first Project Imua payload was launched from Wallops in 2015.

includes a list of other participating institutions and descriptions of the students’ spaceflight technology projects.

—By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

Two University of �鶹��ý Community College students and their advisor spent more than a week at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to prepare their scientific payload for a space launch in August. They are part of a team of students who have been collaborating on this project for months.

students designed and built a small, light-weight rocket that will convert camphor to gas to propel its release into space at the peak of the NASA rocket’s flight. The team designed a camera system and inertial measurement devices to monitor the motion of the small experimental rocket. The entire payload is less than a foot long, weighs less than 15 pounds and is almost entirely encased in aluminum.

• Read more UH News stories on the Project Imua program.

Students trouble-shoot payload

After the payload failed an initial power test, Windward CC student Nikki Arakawa, the rocket team lead, had to rewire the interface and power connections. Following another successful power test, Arakawa was able to turn the payload over to the Wallops integration team for placement in the rocket to be launched in August.

Arakawa, who graduated with her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UH Mānoa in May 2022 and was recently part of an award-winning rocketry team, said she is now considering going to graduate school to study aerospace mechanical engineering.

“I only just had a chance to start trying out all these things, and it just feels like—gosh I just wish I started this a lot earlier,” she said.

While at NASA, D’Elle Martin, the team lead for Honolulu CC, ran checks on the various systems, including the video capture units.

“What I realized throughout this project and through my previous project with Honolulu Community College—through both electronics programming and model rocketry—is that even though you might have a major that may not be necessarily towards engineering, you can still learn a lot about working in a team, but also different pathways to STEM careers,” Martin said.

The current UH Mānoa architecture student said the Project Imua experience has inspired her to consider the nascent specialization of space architecture.

Arakawa and Martin were accompanied by mentor Jacob Hudson from Windward CC. Mentor Shidong Kan, a Honolulu CC associate professor of physics, will escort four students to the NASA facility for final integration of the payload onto the rocket and launch, which is tentatively scheduled for August 9.

Mission 10 is funded through the and represents the fourth time that a UH Project Imua payload will be launched into outer space.

The first Project Imua payload was launched from Wallops in 2015.

A NASA rocket scheduled for space launch in August will carry a scientific payload designed and built by students. When the rocket launched from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia reaches sub-orbital flight, it will release the student-built experiment.

The students have been collaborating on this project for months. students designed and built a camphor-powered sublimation rocket that will convert the camphor to gas to propel the small, light-weight rocket once the payload is released at the peak of the NASA rocket’s flight. The team designed a camera system and inertial measurement unit devices to monitor the sublimation rocket’s motion. The entire payload is less than a foot long, weighs less than 15 pounds and is almost entirely encased in aluminum.

“Project-based research like Mission 10 offers UH Community College students unique opportunities to explore and prepare for high-tech, STEM careers while working alongside NASA engineers,” said Project Manager Joe Ciotti, a Windward CC professor. “For these students, this really is rocket science and one powerful confidence builder.”

Project Imua (to move forward in ʻō������� �鶹��ý) is a joint faculty-student enterprise of multiple UH Community College campuses in affiliation with the that provides students with real-world, project-based learning opportunities. Students experiment with high-power rocketry and design and fabricate small payloads for space flight. and have been part of earlier missions.

Later in June, Windward CC faculty mentor Jacob Hudson, Windward CC team lead Nikki Arakawa and Honolulu CC team lead D’Elle Martin will travel to the NASA facility to run the Project Imua Mission 10 payload through rigorous testing. Mission 10 represents the fourth time that a UH Project Imua payload will be launched into outer space. The first Project Imua payload was launched from Wallops in 2015.

Read more UH News stories on the Project Imua program.

A team of students from multiple campuses took first place in a rocketry competition held in Nevada in September. The ’ Project Imua Mission 9 team won the extreme altitude hybrid motor competition with the launch of their 12-foot, eight-inch hybrid rocket, named “Apophis” after the Egyptian god of chaos.

Students from originally designed and built this rocket for the ’s competition sponsored by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association that was to be held during the summer in New Mexico, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. students designed an atmospheric sensing payload to be carried aboard Apophis.

The rocket and payload were finally launched in September 2021 in Black Rock, Nevada as part of the (AERO-PAC)’s competition. The Project Imua team won the altitude contest for the hybrid-motor class rockets after Apophis attained an apogee of 3,413 feet.

“I had actually never launched anything that big, so it was just so exciting to see it lift off the ground, go really high and then land as expected,” said student Nikki Arakawa.

Windward CC rocketry team members Arakawa and Quinn O’Malley also each placed second in the Extreme Altitude Contest for the solid rockets (in different classes) that each built and launched at the AERO-PAC competition.

Windward CC graduate and UH Mānoa physics student Jared Estrada has been involved with Project Imua since 2019 and served as project lead for the Mission 9 rocket.

“People should know that it is a great opportunity to get hands-on experience in rocketry,” Estrada said. “It is an amazing opportunity and the team is very passionate and dedicated with what they do.”

The Project Imua team composed of 17 students and six mentors worked on the project for two years, due to pandemic related delays and cancellations.

“Our students learn firsthand that rocket science is more than high tech and engineering,” said Project Imua Manager and Windward CC Professor Joe Ciotti. “‘To boldly go’ demands unwavering commitment, resilience and teamwork. The lessons learned on this mission will launch them on exciting careers.”

The two campuses are currently collaborating on Project Imua Mission 10 to develop a scientific payload that will be launched into sub-orbital flight this summer from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. This will be Project Imua’s fourth payload launched into outer space. Mission 10 is funded by the .

“We would really appreciate having more hands in our lab,” Arakawa said. “If anybody is willing to join, contact us because we really are looking to spread pretty much the joys of rocketry.”

—By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

Read more about Project Imua on UH News.