Bellevue’s Space Potatoes rocketry team took first place in the International Rocketry Challenge on July 15 after competing against thousands of students from around the world.

Odle Middle School students Mikaela Ikeda, 12; Stephanie Han, 13; Srivatshan Sakthinarayanan, 14; Karl Deerkop, 14; and Larry Jing, 14 represented the United States in the international competition and helped the country obtain its second win.

This was the first time one of Odle’s rocketry teams made it to the national competition, let alone the championship.

“Representing the entire country was really intimidating,” said Mikaela Ikeda, captain of the Odle Middle School “Space Potatoes” rocketry team said in a statement. “Luckily, we had each other for support and everyone did their jobs perfectly!”

The team was challenged to not only design a successful rocket, but present their process to a panel of international judges. The team had never been judged on their presentation of their findings, but took first place in this portion of the challenge, which accounted for 40 percent of their overall score.

The teams designed, built and launched rockets with a goal of reaching an altitude of exactly 850 feet within a 44- to 46-second flight window. This year’s contest required rockets to carry two raw eggs, placed perpendicular to each other in the rocket’s body, a task that complicated rocket design. Scores were determined by how close the rockets approached the required height and time. If an egg cracked, the team would be disqualified.

The Space Potatoes rose through the ranks at various competitions this school year, eventually winning the world’s largest student rocket contest, the Team America Rocketry Challenge, in May. The students were awarded $20,000 in scholarships as well as $1000 to support Odle’s rocketry program.

They learned a great deal, the team said, from their fellow competitors.

Three teams of 19 Odle students designed rockets this past school year. They would meet each week and go over what struggles they were having and what they had found success with.

None of the rocket teams would have made it alone, the teams’ coach Brendan Williams said.