Suman Sherwani learned what it's like to press the button that sends a rocket soaring.

As launch pad supervisor, UI senior Suman Sherwani pushed the button to fire a sounding rocket toward space.

The exhilarating moment was the culmination of a weeklong international field school where undergraduates design, build, and launch a 9-foot-tall rocket from Andøya Space Center in Andenes, Norway. Sherwani's experience through the Canada-Norway Student Sounding Rocket (CaNoRock) exchange program this past fall allowed her and other students from around the world to apply what they've learned in the classroom to a near-Earth mission. Two more UI students, physics majors Emily Silich and Danny Tallon, participated in the program this past January.