HUNCH launches student manufacturing—literally

High school manufacturing programs teach students to create production parts, preparing them for careers in industry. Those parts are primarily for terrestrial applications. However, unique and exciting opportunities to produce parts for use above the earth are available to partner-schools in a 14-year-old government program called HUNCH (High schools United with NASA to Create Hardware).

NASA program support machinist Amanda Phelps (right) and high school student Brandon Ptak machine stowage locker components on a CNC mill. Image courtesy Bill Rakonczay, Orleans/Niagara BOCES.

“We have flown close to 200 items [manufactured by high school students] into space, with about 100 more in process right now,” said Blake Ratcliff, NASA’s HUNCH program manager, who’s based in Houston. “We have students doing prototype work, build-to-print, software development, communications products—it’s a huge range of products, many for use on the International Space Station or the rockets that fly there.”

A galley table, a specialized tape dispenser, foot restraints for maneuverability and nearly countless individual components are in orbit, all manufactured, and in some cases designed, by teenagers.

Students at the Orleans/Niagara BOCES Orleans Career and Tech Ed Center, Medina, N.Y., have been manufacturing spaceflight hardware for the past 4 years, according to Bill Rakonczay, an instructor at the center.

“We make parts for the International Space Station,” he said. “Every year, it’s different; this year, we’re making parts for stowage lockers—knobs, latches, door panels, bottom plates, fixturing—whatever is needed.”