MEDIA ADVISORY: 'Space Cowboys' welcome rocketeers

Contact: Kenneth Billings

Students from around the state converge on the Mississippi State campus this weekend in hopes of winning a $1,000 top prize in the 2008 Middle School Launch Competition.

Gathering 8:30 a.m.-noon Saturday [April 12] at the university's Recreational Sports Complex, 50 participants will launch rockets of their own design and construction. Also awarded will be $250 second-place and $100 third-place prizes.

The event is organized by the MSU Space Cowboys student organization, in coordination with the aerospace engineering department and Bagley College of Engineering.

Space Cowboys holds the only National Association of Rocketry charter in Mississippi. Members compete annually in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's University Student Launch Initiative.

The sports complex is located south of Blackjack Road and just east of the Wise Center, home of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

For more information, contact professor Keith Koenig, sponsor for the student organization, at 662-325-7286 or koenig@ae.msstate.edu.

For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.