Four five years, the Russellville City School Engineering team has had a team compete in TARC in order to branch out the team from robotics to rocketry. However, this year will be the first year the team has qualified for nationals.

The TARC team consists of nine students: Andrew Heath, Christian Ruiz, Niles Butts, Katie Burns, Evan Swinney, Yohalani Mojica, Emma Studdard, Madison Thompson and Chelsea Suddith. Mark Keeton and Joseph Cole sponsor TARC. The team’s mentor is Tracy Burns.

The RCS TARC team is currently building a model rocket that is meant to go 800 feet into the air, make the trip up and back down in 47 seconds, and safely land with an egg intact. The team finished in the top 100 in the nationwide competition, qualifying for nationals in Washington D. C. If the team does well in D.C., they will travel to France to compete in the world competition.

Sponsor Mark Keeton has helped with the team for the past three years as co-sponsor. This year he has taken over as head.

“The goal is to get as close to 800 feet in 47 seconds that we can and advance to the world competition,” said Keeton.

During the competition, RCS TARC team will launch their rocket three times. The judges will take the averages of the two best flights (height and time) and calculate a final score. The winner will advance to France. “The students learn a lot about engineering,” Keeton said. “From the software used to calculate how well a specific design for a tail fin will work, all the way to building the rocket itself.

“The students have the opportunity to learn and all the while have hands on experience.”

Scholarships will be offered at the national level in D.C. The trip to D.C. will be very costly, according to Keeton, so if you would like to help the RCS team get to nationals, donations will be accepted.