Calhoun Community College is one of the original SpaceTEC partners. Located in Huntsville and Decatur, AL. and near NASA/George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, the college has a degree program with a major in Aerospace Technology. Students have an option to choose from two areas of concentration; Structures & Assembly or Welding. The Aerospace Technology program has an enrollment of 79 for Fall of 2008. SpaceTEC Certification testing is administered on the CCC campus as well as MSFC by four local SpaceTEC examiners. Successful candidates of the SpaceTEC Core certification can articulate up to 19 credit hours in the Aerospace Technology program at Calhoun.
August 19, 2008 the 1st Annual North Alabama Technician Recognition event was held at the new U.S. Space and Rocket Center Davidson Center for Space Exploration. Over 380, area technicians and their guests, along with management from the sponsoring industries honored area technicians for their contribution to NASA and aerospace industry. The following six area companies sponsored a Technician of the Year, ATK, Boeing, ERC, InfoPro, Qualis, and ULA. From these six candidates a "2008 North Alabama Technician of the Year" was selected, and also honored at HATS (Huntsville Area Technical Society) Professional of the Year Banquet.
Presently there are 72 area technicians that have successfully completed the Core SpaceTEC Certification. The college has offered 4 readiness classes this year to help prepare technicians for the exam. Companies who participated in the readiness review include, ATK, ULA, LM, and Jacobs. Calhoun is developing a Manufacturing concentration exam, which requires candidates to have passed the Core examination. We are working with industry experts, who have been identified by their companies, to validate the baseline test results of this certification. Industry SMEs have meet to review and discuss the Manufacturing Essentials, Structures & Assembly, Machining & Fabrication and Welding & Cutting components of the exam.
Calhoun Aerospace students have submitted a proposal to NASA University Student Launch Initiative and have received acceptance to the program at this phase. Their mission is to build an Ares I rocket model from the ground up; which consist of 3 different stages with a capsule payload and abort tower. They will prepare, design, build, test, fly and recover the rocket safely in a safe and supportive environment. The project plan is to test the Ares I launch vehicle configuration. The proposed test is to fly a three-stage 1/20 scale launch vehicle with the third stage being the abort tower with crew module attached and successful landing of the crew module. The rocket project selected for the University Student Launch Initiative is focused on showcasing the CCC space vehicle fabrication and construction capabilities. This unique hands-on experience allows students to demonstrate proof-of-concept for their designs and gives previously abstract concepts tangibility. This educational experience culminates with a launch at Marshall Space Flight Center in the April 2009. Seven students and two faculty/industry mentors are involved with this initiative.