The Air Force Association announced the winners of the national high school space challenge StellarXplorers III, held earlier this month in Colorado Springs, Colo. The “Sky Dragons” team from San Pedro High School in San Pedro, Calif., is this year’s national champion. The “Scintillators” team from the Kaiserslautern American High School in Kaiserslautern, Germany, finished in second place. The “Rocketeer Steers” team from Graham High School in Graham, Texas, finished third. Ten teams participated in the event, which was held at the Space Foundation’s Discovery Center. Each student in the top three teams received educational grants, which were sponsored by the USAF Science, Technology, Education, and Math Program and the United Launch Alliance. During the first day of the competition, students had eight hours to define an optimal satellite orbit, choose spacecraft components, and select rocket boosters that meet a set of mission requirements. The students then presented their plan on the second day, which was scored by a panel of experts.
House lawmakers are encouraging the Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command to work together as each pursues long-range, long-endurance reconnaissance drones. Both entities are investing in unmanned assets that can slip into highly defended areas, loiter over a particularly valuable target for days at a time, and traverse multiple…