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Blastoff: Retired NASA engineer helps students launch rockets
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Ava White Academy student Carson Kidd watches his rocket Star Fire launch at the Midtown Greenway with help from Ed Banke on Thursday morning. Students from the school each built their own rocket and helped in the launch and retrieval.
The crowd cheered as Dragonite, Ninja, Big Red, Ava 1 and others took flight on Thursday morning during Ava White Academy’s Rocket Day. With parents snapping photos and Gainesville firefighters on hand as “rocket recovery teams,” 22 students launched their own model rockets they built with the help of a retired NASA engineer. “I thought it was really cool and honestly I thought (the launch) was pretty,” said Cole Padget, mission commander for his rocket, the USS Veridian.