Northern Oklahoma College pre-engineering students earned a trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in early September.
Students earned the trip by winning the Moon Division of First Nations Launch Competition in April 2024 in Oshksoh, Wisconsin.
According to Dr. Frankie Wood-Black, Division Chair for Pre-Engineering, Physical Science, and Process Technology, students attending were Grant Biggers, Andrew Lewis, and Raven Bruce.
“This trip was the result of the team’s great efforts this past year. The students were able to see things that the average person couldn’t. It was a wonderful experience.” Dr. Wood-Black said. “And, what makes it really special is that our team was joined by the Mars Challenge winners from MIT.”
NOC President Diana Watkins added, “I’m so proud of and grateful for the work Dr. Wood-Black does with our NOC students. All of us at NOC enjoyed watching them reap the benefits of the extensive preparation they did for the First Nations Launch Competition as we followed their experience at Kennedy Space Center on social media.”
Tours included the Vehicle Assembly Building, the Launch Bunker for Mercury and Gemini missions, the site of the Apollo I and VII missions, the runway where the shuttles landed – with the mark for the last landing of the Atlantis Shuttle.
The group also toured the hanger where the Columbia shuttle parts were put together after the Feb. 3, 2004 accident.
They also toured the Blue Origin facility, a private space exploration facility founded by Jeff Bezos with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Blue Origin envisions a time when people can tap into the limitless resources of space and enable the movement of damaging industries into space to preserve Earth, humanity’s blue origin.
The students also viewed a launch of Space X Falcon 9 from the space center.
The Group was Joined by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who won the Mars Competition.