On June 19, a day when many Americans celebrate Juneteenth, saw the opening day of America’s most competitive space launch race for collegiate teams. Rocket races will continue for the remainder of the week, with experimental small payload rocketry showing off the engineering of some of the brightest young minds on the planet, in a spectator sport that requires the rabid dedication that is to aeronautical engineering what varsity football is to ambitious young athletes.

The Rocky Path To the Stars

Competition was held high and deep in the desert, at Spaceport America’s vertical launch site. From the little township of Truth or Consequences below, one must follow a steep but paved path that winds above the Rio Grande, and up to the Jornada del Muerto marker along the El Camino Real.

Long ago, the Spaniards named the desolate place that stretched on for 90 miles without water or food. Today it climbs past a series of brick-like boulder steps, past a long pale bridge that stretches out over the Rio Grande boat tours, and onward, down narrow state highways, over railways, onward and upward to the first traffic circle of Spaceport America at last, where Virgin Galactic anchors.

From there, one deviates down a bumpy albeit paved path, swept over by pale dust from the many sandstorms away out West. The Space racer then turns aside and finds a set up of two parking lots where gravel runs, a single pair of bleachers for spectators, and loyal food trucks that dared to make the ascent.

A radio tower stands near the long driveway that leads to the launch pads. Small trailer-like buildings and tents make for staff and management. For the rest, a series of tents offer what shade can be granted from the punishment of the sun. It is under these tents that collegiate aeronauts who will one day join forces with or build the startups to rival the giants of SpaceX and Blue Origin are waiting.

A Late Start

The race was initially intended to begin at 9 am Mountain Time in the area, and this was the time spectators and other non-competing parties were told to arrive. However, students would not be ready to launch their machines yet at this time. This delay would lead to some logistics issues later on.

Because of the conditions of the desert, the subsequent launches of the week were set to be held in the morning, beginning at 7 am.

A Powerful Heat, and a Simmering Dust

By the middle of the day, the heat rose to over 100 degrees, and with it, the desert around the launch pad had become a sheer punishment.

Dust devils rose and twisted along the path of the many shallow shrubs bowed over, crouching prayer-like low to the ground, and hissing as the wind scratched their thorns along the stones as if to sharpen them. Lizards darted in and out of the shrubs, as the wildlife made their presence known.

Among the Wild

Out along the pads, every creeping thing dwells, from rattlers to scorpions to tarantulas, to spider-shaped scorpion-like creatures called Vinegaroons for their vinegar-like spray. Droppings and hoofprints alerted those gathered that horses had passed through not long before, likely coming from the direction of a sprawling nearby cattle farm.

In the morning hours, there is the promise that the serpents will break loose from their hiding from the sun’s affliction, and this is when racers must be most alert for wildlife. But near noon, the heat was so powerful that it overwhelmed even the desert creatures. A Spaceport launch control employee took pity on some hovering bees, as he poured some water over where they congregated.

Logistics Issues Caused By the Scorch

More than a misery for onlookers, the heat caused a glare called “heat shimmer” that stood sent beams of light shooting straight up through camera feeds.  For logistics reasons, this created challenges for the officiators. Launch control struggled with the optical illusions of the glare of the now chalk-heavy air, as they tried to gather visuals on the launch pads. There were two sets of such pads, to the left and right of the tower’s sight line, where single, two-stage, and hybrid rockets would launch from.

Tiny But “Not Toys”

Spaceport America Cup competing rockets are tiny, ranging from 20 to 50 pounds depending on the flight class. However, Spaceport Launch control was quick to remind those looking on from the tower that, while diminutive in appearance compared with the familiar Falcon 9s of SpaceX fame, these rockets are “not toys.” These rockets carry real igniters, motors, and payloads.

Rocket Science

Even while the race was ongoing, competing teams had affixed research payloads to their rockets, with hopes of gathering some science and engineering feedback in a feat of Galactic multi-tasking. These included payloads to capture a live stream of one rocket's descent, gather feedback data on the fly, or send up the 3-D printer displayed on the Las Cruces Convention Center floor to test in real-time the capacity the small rocket has of carrying a self-replicating device into orbit. Other payloads even included a CubeSat and a research life support system, which is used for sustaining the life of astronauts while in space.

In Flight

Salvos of rockets ran on the first day, with competing teams adding fuel additives to add color to the blast off. One rocket raced with a stream that burned a bright pink, and the rocket sailed clean into the heavens. But the soft pink rocket blast and clean smoke of this launch, perhaps the cleanest of the day,and its soft descent back to the launch pad, was the desired outcome some of the teams did not enjoy.

The Anomalies

Call it wind, or a malfunction of design, which judges often debated, little rockets have a propensity to tip to their side and bob back and forth on their path to the stars. Such launches leave a smoke trail behind that winds like the path of a snake through the dust. For some, this caused a rainbow-like arc on exit. In some cases, the anomaly comes as a burst of sudden catastrophic change.

This was the case for Penn State’s contender “Dorothy”, which made a clean ascent all the way to nearly where the rocket breaks the sky, and disappears from spectator sight. As the rocket reached this edge point, it suddenly uttered a loud gasp of backfire, and it spiraled, in a tightly wound spin that resembled a 90’s telephone cord.

Another incident occurred when the rocket dubbed Prometheus was set to make its flight. Countdown had begun. Countdown was finishing, in fact. Just as the launch controller uttered “2,1,” he walked back: “Wait, wait, wait!!!” For it was just then that the parachute of another rocket on descent came floating clean over the launch pads, in direct impact path with the rocket set to go.

Small Triumph

For the rocket called Midas, by the Purdue Space Program, such anomalies ended in small triumphs. Midas flew with the graduating efforts of its team, and the hopes its makers have of prospective careers in the commercial Space industry.

The rocket itself ascended like Icarus straight into the eye of the sun. Onlooking controllers made note of “big circles” that it drew in the sky. On re-entry, controllers worried over the fact that no shoot was visible. Three pieces of the now disassembled rocket bobbed and swayed before the sun, and it felt as if it would meet the same fate as Icarus, but it was not to be.

For near the end, the wind picked up, and the shoot deployed, guiding the rocket softly to the ground, in a little victory for small science that symbolizes the full spirit of this grand prix of the Interstellar highway, where Final Frontier pioneers go to be recognized by peers as the future takers of giant steps for humanity.