Detailed information about the competition, including prizes, requirements, rules and an application for entry will be posted at www.rocketcontest.org on September 2, 2003. One hundred of the best teams from across the country will be invited to compete in the finals on May 15, 2004, at Great Meadow, The Plains, Virginia.

            Last May's inaugural contest featured more than 9,000 students on 873 teams with all fifty states having schools represented. A purse of more than $50,000 was divided among top teams in various categories.

            The objective of the 2004 event is to build a model rocket with two stages, weighing less than 3.3 pounds and using commercially made model rocket engines. Rockets will be launched with a payload of two raw Grade A Large eggs to a specific altitude. Electronic altimeters will measure which rocket comes closest to the specified altitude, and a winner with eggs intact will be declared accordingly.

            Congressman Clyburn has applauded the competition as a means of bringing the scientific laws of rocketry and the trial and error processes of manufacturing an original product into classrooms across the country. "This event gives students of all grades, locations and backgrounds a chance to reach for the heavens," Congressman Clyburn said. "Teachers and students can see this as an opportunity to collaborate on an experiment created purely from raw materials and imagination."

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