O’ Gorman Sending Rocket Team to Compete in Virginia

O'Gorman High School in Sioux Falls will be the only South Dakota team next weekend at the national finals of a rocketry contest near Washington.

The 2015 Team America Rocketry Challenge, or TARC, is billed as the world's largest such gathering. Teams will send model rockets, complete with an egg astronaut on board, into the air and pray for serious altitude and safe landings. This year it includes 100 teams from 27 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A top ten finish would means scholarship money for the school.

The teams represent schools, 4-H clubs, civil air patrol squadrons, and science clubs. These teams will square off to determine a national champion on May 9 at Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia.

TARC finalists are competing for scholarships and prizes totaling more than $60,000 and the chance to travel to the Paris International Air Show in June. The winning team will represent the United States in the International Rocketry Challenge and face off against teams from the United Kingdom and France.

The Associated Press contributed to this report