A success story in accomplishment of one of the prime objectives of the Space Grant Program is the interactive networking that has been achieved. This success is proudly shared with other Consortia and NASA Centers across the Nation. The networking reaches into every state plus Puerto Rico, Guam and the District of Columbia plus to each NASA Enterprise Center.

Networking, comprised of personal visits, telephone, fax, newsletters, www home pages, and especially e-mail, is functioning efficiently between the distributed Headquarters of the Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium and each of its Affiliate Members: Utah State University, University of Utah, University of Denver, Thiokol Propulsion, Brigham Young University, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Weber State University, Hansen Planetarium, Southern Utah University, Hill Aerospace Museum, Snow College, Space Dynamics Laboratory, and Shoshone-Bannock School. Participating students and staff are also communicating among one another. In addition, a Space Grant Fellows Alumni Association has been established, under the leadership of Dr. Charles Tolle. An e-based communication linkage is set up to each Fellowship alumnus.

Networking is functioning effectively with most of the other Consortia of the National Space Grant Program and with NASA Enterprise Centers. Verification of this networking success is the number of partnershipped projects that have been formulated. Among these partnerships on specific research and/or outreach efforts are those between Affiliates of the Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium and the following Consortia and with NASA Centers: Idaho, Nevada, Montana, New Mexico, Maryland, Colorado, Virginia, Arizona, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Puerto Rico, JSC, LaRC, SSC, Wallops FF, GSFC, MSFC, Ames RC, and JPL.

The Consortium publishes quarterly (Signals) and monthly (Space News) newsletters. These are mailed as hard copies and also are posted and updated under the Consortium homepage. In addition, the Consortium is assisting in the implementation of the Space and Science Center in Salt Lake City by the State of Utah, Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City governments.

Model V-2 rocket launch at Park City during the National Space Grant Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah

An example of a successful collaborative project is the one on designing and flying small rocket payloads. The small rocket is 2 1/8 inches in diameter and is 12 feet long. The paylod section is 5 feet with a maximum weight of 17 pounds. The booster is 7 feet in length. These solid rockets can fly to 100 km carrying payloads designed by student and mentor teams from Utah State University, Space Dynamics Laboratory, Langley Research Center, Hampton University, and Wallops Flight Facility. Students, including three of African ancestry, have already graduated from this project and are working in industry. The project is under the leadership of Professors James Ulwick, James Russell and Peter Mace. This project is complementary to the Unity rockets designed and flown by students at four universities of the Consortium.