Blasting off to success: THS Rocketry
CONTRIBUTED - Tharptown High School's rocketry team comes in second in the nation in the American Rocketry Challenge.
Opinion, We Say, Z - TOP HOME
 By  Staff Reports Published 
9:15 am Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Blasting off to success: THS Rocketry

There’s no denying we’ve got a lot of passionate people in our community, many of them students, teachers and administrators. We see lots of successes, in academics, sports, the arts and other areas. Over the weekend, the Tharptown High School rocketry team blasted off to success once again, coming in second in the nation for the American Rocketry Challenge, and we’re thrilled to see them reach new heights.

They competed against the other 99 teams who made it to nationals, and it’s no small thing they were able to come out so close to the top. They’re no strangers to success, though, placing tenth in the nation last year, and ninth in the nation the previous year. Year after year, they are showing their enthusiasm and commitment to excellence through teamwork and dedicated practice, research and experimentation, and we applaud them for seeing the fruits of all their hard work.

Not only have they won the acclaim that goes along with such a prestigious accomplishment but also $15,000 for their team and $1,000 for the school. Team members have expressed their increasing enthusiasm, as well as their heightened desire to do everything they can to win first place next year. It’s not all fun and games, though.
The work they’re putting in has plenty of applications for life outside of high school.

The science skills they are learning, as well as the nuances of working successfully as a team, have direct parallels to work they may decide to pursue after graduation, whether in rocketry or other fields, though rocketry is certainly a field with ever-increasing potential for growth in the job market, especially heightened by our proximity to Huntsville and the work being done there.

To learn more about the Tharptown High School rocketry team’s recent successes, read our article in this week’s paper that goes more in-depth. It starts on the front page in the print edition, and it can be found here on our website. Congratulations, Tharptown Rocketry!  We can’t wait to see what you accomplish next.

Also on Franklin County Times
Ex-day care owner faces 27-count indictment
Main, News, Russellville
Kevin Taylor For the FCT 
October 15, 2025
RUSSELLVILLE — The former owner of a Red Bay day care center where a 4-month-old died in March 2022 is now facing a manslaughter charge after a Frankl...
AI policies stress proper use over prohibition
Main, News
Alyssa Sutherland For the FCT 
October 15, 2025
Sheffield City Schools’ policy regarding student use of artificial intelligence (AI) at the start of the 2025-26 school year limited the use of the so...
Faith, family and resilience are keys to cancer survival
Main, News, Phil Campbell, ...
María Camp maria.camp@franklincountytimes.com 
October 15, 2025
PHIL CAMPBELL — Ten years ago, Melissa Stancil faced a diagnosis that changed her life. Today, she’s not only a survivor of Stage 3 breast cancer but ...
Gilmer fulfills dream competing on ‘Jeopardy!’
Main, News, Russellville, ...
María Camp maria.camp@franklincountytimes.com 
October 15, 2025
RUSSELLVILLE — Russellville native Slade Gilmer fulfilled a lifelong dream when he competed on “Jeopardy!” in an episode that aired Oct. 7. Gilmer liv...
Police among state’s first certified departments
News, Russellville, Z - News Main
María Camp maria.camp@franklincountytimes.com 
October 15, 2025
RUSSELLVILLE — The city’s Police Department is one of the first 12 departments to earn professional accreditation through the Alabama Association of C...
We must break China’s grip on defense supply chains
Columnists, Opinion
October 15, 2025
China’s Xi Jinping appeared supremely confident at a recent military parade in Beijing with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Xi’...
DKG international president visits Russellville
Columnists, Opinion
HERE AND NOW
October 15, 2025
When educators gather, there’s always something to learn, and this month our local Delta Kappa Gamma chapter, Alpha Upsilon, heard directly from the t...
More than laughs: Improvising for life’s situations
News
Chelsea Retherford For the FCT 
October 15, 2025
When most people hear the word “improv,” they might think of the quickwitted antics of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” But David Grissom, a veteran comedy ...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *