His Excellency Dr. Eng. Mohammed Nasser Al Ahbabi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency attended the event and expressed his excitement at seeing so many space enthusiasts gathered together to put their rocketry skills to the test.
“We are delighted to support the Space & Rocketry Academy UAE and collaborate with Compass International to raise awareness among students, teachers and parents of the importance of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and space exploration by inviting international experts to the UAE to share their knowledge and experience. Through events, initiatives and activities such as the Space & Rocketry Academy UAE the UAE Space Agency aims to build national human capacity and inspire the next generation space pioneers, in line with the objectives of our National Space Program,” said Al Ahbabi.
All rockets that were launched were constructed by students as part of the SARAUAE (Space and rocketry Academy UAE) camps across the UAE, they were built from kits that are of a design approved by the National Association of Rocketry. Two types of model rockets were flown: Research Express – single stage rocket and Sky Metra – two stage. All of the model rocket motors used were single use pre-packed motors that are considered low powerrocket engines for basic rocketry.
All instruction for the building and launching of the model rockets had been overseen different NASA experts and by Michael Flachbart who has over 28 years of experience in model rocketry in the USA with the NASA visitor center U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
The force behind this grand event was UAE’s very own Compass International, who took the initiative to develop and run this camp, speaking about SARAUAE, the MD and owner of Compass International Lissy Donald said, “I feel blessed to have been able to contribute in developing and honing a scientific temperament amongst the youth in the UAE. My mission and vision in life is to help make a future ready generation of creative problem solvers who are equipped to deal with all kinds of challenges in life, SARAUAE was born out of this vision and I will make sure that all youth in the UAE are able to benefit from this program”, adding to this she said, “it makes me proud as a parent each time a rockets goes up, we will continue to do these camps and invite all students to be a part of this”.