April 24, 2025
"Ten
nine
eight
seven
six
five
four
THREE
TWO
ONE!!!!!"
At the top of their lungs, the students of the Monster Class (Oskar Spiel School) and the Fox Class (VS Reichsapfelgasse) joined in the countdown for the rocket launch in Schärding. They became enthusiastic spectators of a real rocket launch during the CanSat competition of the ESA (European Space Agency), which is organized in collaboration with TU Wien and ESERO Austria (European Space Education Resource Office) for school students.But as is typical for a real rocket launch, the planned lift-off was delayedfirst due to weather conditions and then because of a malfunctioning onboard computer. In the meantime, both classes took part in the “Spacecraft Materials Kit” workshop hosted by ESERO Austria, which also took place at Schärding-Suben airfield. There, the children tested and examined various materials to find out whether they were suitable for manufacturing different components for space missions.
At 1:45 PM, the rocket from the TU Wien Space Team successfully launched: it soared over 600 meters into the sky, then the braking parachute deployed, and the so-called deployer pushed out the CanSats*. The satellites floated gently to the ground with their colorful parachutes, where they were later collected for data analysis. It was hard to know which one to follow with your eyes! The students from the Oskar Spiel School and VS Reichsapfelgasse were thoroughly impressed.
* CanSats are called “can satellites” because they are about the size of a soft drink can.
