Israelis living in the south of Israel have become used to being on the receiving end for decades of thousands of rockets hurled at them by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza. Now students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) have successfully produced and launched a rocket of their own in the south – not to damage or loss or life but for science. 

Last Friday, the experimental rocket was set off from the surfaces of Kibbutz Beit Nir, a collective settlement the jurisdiction of Yoav Regional Council established in 1957 by members of Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. 

The members of the HUJI Rocket Club for outstanding students were behind the creation and testing of the rocket, which was aimed to reach a peak altitude of about 720 meters and a speed of 430 kilometers per hour, which is about half of one Mach (one Mach is the speed of sound, around 761 miles per hour at sea level on a standard day). The launch of civilian and unclassified scientific rockets in this area is extremely rare.  

While it was in the air, the ground crew conducted an experiment and transmitted the telemetry of flight measurements to a ground; then, the rocket landed safely on the ground with a parachute. 

Thirty members of the university’s Rocket Club came to witness the launch along with dozens of other spectators, including people from academia and industry, as well as Zik Dinur, an Israeli fireworks company that was responsible for the pyrotechnic side of the rocket launch.

After the successful takeoff, the rocket was returned to the ground using a parachute that slowed the speed of its fall to prevent damage to the sensitive equipment and electronics installed on it, “Our important aims were achieved. We climbed to the required height; we were able to open the parachute; and we were able to get telemetry in real time,” the team said. 

The Rocket Club further noted that the purpose of the launch was first and foremost to balance even slightly the negative connotation of the word “rocket” and to show that there are positive uses for them such as advancing science and technology. The rocket is called RAM-1, named for Givat Ram, the location of HUJI’s Safra campus in Jerusalem (there is another one on Mount Scopus). Ram also means “heights” in Hebrew, and the rocket reached a high altitude. The rocket was painted pink to raise awareness of breast cancer, as it was planned for launch during  Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

The entire project is being carried out with the assistance of a large number of companies, organizations and associations, including Condor Pacific, Rafael, Israel Aircraft Industries, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, C.S.S Exact Systems, B.A. Microwaves Ltd. and the Anat and Amnon Shashua Foundation, which provided various content experts and advanced equipment for the students..

This year is the third year in which the club’s enrichment program has been taught at the university’s Racah Institute of Physics. Rocket Club activity is open to any full-time student at the university and from any discipline – from public administration to chemistry, physics, business administration and education. 

Prof. Reem Sari, a member of the club’s steering committee and head of the university’s Research and Development Authority, commented that “such a club allows for a slightly less-formal interaction and hearing from researchers and other experts about the research and experiments they perform. In addition, students experience teamwork and use the diverse knowledge they acquired during their studies for solving real engineering problems.”