Students competing in a competition as part of the StellarXplorers STEM program. Photo: StellarXplorers

[Via Satellite 12-13-2016] United Launch Alliance (ULA) has signed on as the newest sponsor of the Air Force Association’s StellarXplorers Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program. StellarXplorers seeks to inspire and attract high school students to pursue studies and careers in STEM fields through a challenging, space system design competition involving all aspects of system development and operation with a spacecraft/payload focus.

ULA’s sponsorship includes a dinner for the national finalists, designation as the official travel sponsor, and funding for the StellarXplorers III winners. ULA will provide airfare for the ten teams traveling for the national finals in 2017 and 2018. Additionally, ULA will provide cash awards for each student on the national champion team, as well as awards to the second and third place teams for StellarXplorers III.

“We are so pleased to join StellarXplorers in helping them achieve their goal of inspiring the future generation,” said ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno. “Our top community focus is science, technology, engineering and math education, as the students today will be the rocket scientists driving the innovations of tomorrow.”