The moment Alabama students find out they’re the best rocketry team in the world

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June 19, 2015

The RCS Rocketry Team learns it has won the international competition. — Members of the RCS Rocketry Team learns they have won the international competition in Paris.

PARIS, France — The Russellville City Schools Engineering Rocketry Team won the International Rocketry Challenge fly-off at the Paris Air Show Friday, the first time a team from Alabama has won the competition.

The RCS team beat out hundreds of other rocketry teams last month to earn the chance to compete internationally against teams from the U.K and France.

Representing Russellville in Paris were team captain Andrew Heath (17), Christian Ruiz (16), Niles Butts (16), Katie Burns (12), Evan Swinney (17), Emma Studdard (14), and Chelsea Suddith (15).

The team was given the opportunity to compete in Paris afterwinning the American competition in May, sent by defense contractor Raytheon, one of the Team American Rocketry Challenge (TARC) sponsors.

“I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of this remarkable group of young people from Russellville,” said the area’s Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL4). “I had the honor to meet with them in Washington right before they won the Team America Rocketry Challenge. I could tell from talking with them and hearing about the rockets they were building that this group was destined for great things.”

“Alabama is the cradle of the nation’s rocket program and the birthplace of the Saturn V rocket that sent man to the moon, so it is truly wonderful to see this group of young Alabamians continue our innovative rocketry tradition,” said Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said after the team’s TARC win.

Russellville’s team winning the international rocketry competition isn’t the only way Alabama has stood out during the week long Paris Air Show.

On Monday airplane parts company Hutchinson Corporation revealed to the public its intention to build an Aerospace Manufacturing Center of Excellence (COE) in Mobile.

Also on Monday, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (R) announced the state launched a set of preliminary studies to determine the state’s ability to land Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Dream Chaser reusable spacecraft at Huntsville International Airport.

Wednesday, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty, a Safran company and major provider of aircraft landing and braking systems, announced it will open an office and workshop at the Mobile Aeroplex—the industrial complex that’s the U.S. home of Airbus.

The Dream Chaser is a reusable spacecraft, similar to a miniature space shuttle, that is launched on a rocket but can land at commercial airports upon its return to Earth.