March 30, 2017

Members of UNT Team Rocket and their mentor (left to right): Joel Thompson, George Sprague, Karen Lyndsey Smith and Luis Gonzalez.
Members of UNT Team Rocket and their mentor (left to right): Joel Thompson, George Sprague, Karen Lyndsey Smith and Luis Gonzalez.
For the first time ever, five College of Engineering students will compete in NASA's Student Launch rocket competition. UNT Team Rocket — made up of seniors Karen Lyndsey Smith, Jessica Hampton, Joel Thompson and Luis Gonzalez and freshman Mitchell Buehler — was one of 42 university teams accepted into the highly competitive challenge.

The NASA Student Launch competition will take place April 5-9 in Huntsville, Alabama.

"This means so much to me," Hampton says. "I've watched all the NASA rocket launches, and someday I would love to get into work in the field with SpaceX or NASA. This is my dream, and this competition is giving me the chance to live it out."