Launching a Career

---

Posted on August 8, 2024 by Thomas Becnel

Thomas Becnel

---

---

When Coleman Davis enrolled at the University of South Alabama, he set his focus on a rocket club in the College of Engineering. Dr. Carlos Montalvo, an associate professor, handed him a debit card worth $150.

“So that was the starting point,” Davis said, laughing. “A hundred fifty dollars and the trust of Dr. Montalvo.”

Davis began recruiting students at South and preparing to enter the NASA University Student Launch Challenge in Huntsville. He and his classmates sent their first rocket nearly a mile into the sky. The following year, he was the project lead for a group that competed in the Spaceport America Cup in New Mexico.

That USA rocket, named “Helios,” was 12 feet long, weighed 75 pounds and reached a maximum speed of Mach 0.80. It rose to a height of nearly 10,000 feet and came within 700 feet of the team’s apogee, the highest point reached in the rocket’s flight.

Read the entire story here!

---

---