ROCKET LESSONS

Leading Edge Rocket Racing and the Challenger Center for Space Education team up to promote the 3S’s -- space, speed and science


As might be expected from men as accomplished and motivated as Leading Edge Rocket Racing™ founders Don A. "Dagger" Grantham, Jr. and Robert "Bobaloo" Rickard, the duo (both F-16 pilots as well as successful business entrepreneurs) are pursuing implementation of their team-building strategy on multiple fronts.

Leading Edge, the Rocket Racing League®’s first racing team, has engaged the services of a top public relations and marketing firm and are scheduled to make appearances at major air shows throughout the summer in concert with Team Oracle and Sean Tucker, who is both one of the world’s top acrobatic pilots and a member of the Rocket Racing League®’s Advisory Board.

Leading Edge is also in the process of developing a relationship with the Challenger Center for Space Education™, an international, not-for-profit education organization that was founded by the families of the astronauts from Challenger Space Shuttle mission 51-L. Grantham and Rickard have participated in two Challenger Center local events thus far, presenting information about themselves and the Rocket Racing League® to an intrigued audience of parents and children.

“Richard Scobee, the son of Challenger commander Dick Scobee, was one of my best friends in the Air Force, and he’s my F-16 Operations Group Commander in the Air Force Reserve,” says Rickard. “The mission of both the Challenger Center and the Rocket Racing League® is to create awareness and excitement about space, science and education, so the fit between our respective groups and goals is very natural. We’re very pleased to be working with such an admirable organization, and look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”

The Challenger Center’s mission is to be the symbol of America’s continuing support of space exploration and an affirmation of our faith in the future. Its purpose is to re-energize our country’s commitment to educational excellence and increase scientific literacy among the public.

"As a long time educator, I'm always looking for new and innovative ways to excite kids about learning,” says William A. Gutsch, Jr., PhD, President and CEO of Challenger Center. “It is hoped that the cooperative effort between Challenger Center and Leading Edge Rocket Racing will inspire students to further their studies in science, math, and technology."

Overview of the Challenger Space Center


In the aftermath of the Challenger accident, the 51-L crew's families came together, still grieving from loss, but firmly committed to the belief that they must carry on the spirit of their loved ones by continuing the Challenger crew's educational mission.

The organization had modest beginnings. June Scobee Rodgers, wife of Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee, gathered the families of the other Challenger astronauts around her living room coffee table. They were clear on one thing: no brick or mortar monument for these astronauts.

"The world knew that seven Challenger astronauts died, but they were more than astronauts,” Rodgers wrote in Silver Linings, her memoir of the Challenger accident and its aftermath. “They were our families and friends. The world knew how they died; we wanted the world to know how they lived and for what they were willing to risk their lives. So, you see, we couldn't let them die in vain. Their mission became our mission."

The family members resolved to create a living memorial to the Challenger crew—the world’s first interactive space science education center where teachers and their students could use state-of-the-art technology and space-life simulators to explore space themselves.

A campaign to raise $1 million in start-up funds was underway by the fall of 1986. All of the families offered their full support. So did companies such as Rockwell International, manufacturer of the space shuttle; Lockheed Martin; and the Gannett Foundation. In tribute to the astronauts’ courage and vision, Challenger Center for Space Science Education was founded and incorporated on April 24, 1986.

"We just couldn’t let the words ‘Challenger’ or ‘space’ mean something sad for children,” said Rogers. “So the idea of a living tribute to carry on the educational mission of the crew developed into Challenger Center. This tribute would utilize the excitement of space to inspire and motivate our nation’s schoolchildren to take interest in mathematics, science, and technology."

In 1988, Challenger Center released an ambitious 10-year Science Education Strategic Plan for delivery of space-related educational programs to teachers and students across the nation. Challenger Center would emphasize equipping teachers with new materials and techniques to meet students’ needs. To achieve its goals, the Challenger Learning Center concept was created—a national network of educational facilities that would contain highly interactive simulations of living and working environments in space.

In support of the strategic plan, Congress established a $15 million Space, Science, and Technology Education Trust Fund to yield a minimum of $1 million annually in interest for Challenger Center for the next decade. It has subsequently been renewed into perpetuity.

The first Challenger Learning Center opened at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in 1988. There are now over 50 Challenger Learning Centers located in 31 states, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with more opening every year. Learning Centers can offer up to four separate mission scenarios: Rendezvous with a Comet™, Encounter Earth™, Return to the Moon™, and Voyage to Mars™.

Another component of the Challenger Center strategic plan was to create a variety of innovative educational programs and products. Using the same educational philosophies of a Challenger Learning Center simulation, Challenger Center developed classroom programs such as Mars City Alpha®, Marsville: The Cosmic Village®, Cosmic EdVentures: Exploring Earth’s Neighborhood™, and Vista Station™.

The organization has built partnerships with some of the most prestigious science museums, universities, and school districts in the country. It has worked productively with NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Urban League. Beginning in 1998, Challenger Center was selected as the primary education partner for Space DaySM, an annual national initiative to celebrate mankind’s achievements in space.

Today, more than 400,000 students, none of whom were even born when the Challenger accident occurred, participate in Challenger Center programs annually. More than 6,000 educators learn the value of simulation for classroom use, adding to the 30,000 classrooms where Challenger Center school-based programs have been made available.

And the mission continues…

For further information on the Challenger Center, please visit www.challenger.org.

Overview of the Leading Edge Rocket Racing Team

Rickard and Grantham, longtime friends and fellow pilots, have a shared history of flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon and diverse backgrounds in business, consulting, and engineering.  

Rickard holds a degree in electrical engineering and served in the active duty Air Force for more than 13 years piloting the F-16. He has amassed 2,450 total flight hours and was awarded "Instructor Pilot of the Year" for two separate Fighter Wings while on active duty.

Rickard is also a graduate of the US Air Force Fighter Weapons School, the most challenging and prestigious doctorate-level flying course in the world. He leads the Rickard Consulting Group, Inc., which provides technical expertise on a wide range of tactical flying programs in the public and private sectors.  

Grantham is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and served as an Air Force F-16 Instructor/Evaluator Pilot as well as an Advance Agent for Air Force One. With more than 16 years of flying, Grantham has accumulated 2,000 total flying hours and has received a variety of awards at every phase of his professional flying career.

In 2002, Grantham became one of only three officers in the history of the Air Force One Advance Agent program to be decorated for service above and beyond the call of duty. Currently, Grantham is co-owner and founder of five companies involved in a variety of enterprises including development of multi-use helmet technology. He is also the General Manager of a large Phoenix-based manufacturing company which he has led through two years of unprecedented growth.  

The nucleus of Leading Edge Rocket Racing will be a small, but extraordinarily qualified group of staff and ground crew, initially about eight and expanding to fifteen over the next couple of years.

Over and above the immediate challenge of putting together a world-class team to compete in the Rocket Racing League®’s first season, the Leading Edge duo are intrigued by both the long-term potential of the technology being developed for the Rocket Racing League®, and the groundswell of interest and activity in developing private and commercial space flight.

“We’re both a bit amazed to find ourselves standing at the base of a brand-new mountain with all the tools needed to get to the top,” says Grantham. “The work that the RRL, Leading Edge and the other teams soon to come will be doing over the next couple of years will drive the development of technology utilized in the next generation of spacecraft. It will intrigue the public, invigorate industry and usher in a new era of opportunity, adventure and exploration.”  

For further information on the Leading Edge Rocket Racing team, please visit www.leadingedgerocketracing.com.