Damien Memorial School has the island's only rocketry class in its curriculum, and on Monday eight students launched 10-inch Estes rockets from the football field at 90 mph that reached as high as 400 to 500 feet. Part of the requirement of the class is that they build and fly their own rockets," said Jacob Hudson, PhD, class instructor. Hudson is also Coordinator for NASA Flight Training AEL and a physics lecturer at Windward Community College. Today's launches preceded the start of the elite Team America Rocketry Challenge season. Damien qualified for the national contest in its first year of competition at the end of the 2013-2014 school year and finished 19th out of 101 teams at the TARC in Virginia. When Damien's TARC team begins its test launches at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in a few weeks, they will be using a 30-inch rocket that must reach an altitude of 800 feet and return to earth with its payload of a raw egg intact. The larger rocket will be 32 times more powerful than the ones launched Monday, according to Hudson. Damien made its one trip to the TARC nationals with eight males. This year the club has five male and five female members, and junior Emily Burke is captain. Sound-bites: Jacob Hudson, PhD, Damien rocketry instructor, and Emily Burke, 11th grade, captain of Damien's TARC club.