Boeing Announces Educational Partnership with U.S. Air Force, UCF and FITCOCOA BEACH, Fla., Mar. 5, 1996 -- Boeing today announced a unique educational partnership with the U.S. Air Force, Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and University of Central Florida (UCF). The program has been designed to give engineering students hands-on experience in the space industry.The 16-week, three semester hour course is being taught at Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) launch facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Station. Each student is required 10 laboratory sessions involving IUS launch preparation. Rick Bird, Boeing IUS Eastern Launch Site program manager, explained that this is the first educational partnership between Boeing and the Air Force to teach college students about launch systems. "This program was initiated by the Cape Canaveral Air Station's 45th Space Wing," said Bird. "Our intent is to help local engineering students with training on space launch systems and flight hardware simulators." The IUS is a two-stage high altitude booster that is manufactured by Boeing in Seattle. It is then shipped to Cape Canaveral where engineers assemble and test the vehicle for mating with a Titan rocket or the space shuttle. According to Bird, FIT and UCF officials are planning to make this program available again this fall to engineering students. |