Three local high schools are part of the rocket launch facility. Students at one of them are actually launching a first of its kind prototype into space!

A group of students from Bob Jones, James Clemens and Sparkman high schools share a special place on the new Blue Origins rocket. They created a tool to determine electric energy from space to Earth.

"We're testing what's called the Seebeck Effect. And, the Seebeck Effect is measuring the voltage created by heat," said Kyle Cash, a Bob Jones student.

Blue Origins said it called both, Huntsville and Madison City schools to give students a hands-on opportunity to learn more about engineering and Madison City jumped on board. On Friday, the students revealed what they created for the company.

"They thought that would be an interesting thing to study because heat travels differently in space and so testing something that has never been tested before seemed like something that would be really cool to do," said Ethan Culver, who's also a Bob Jones student.

In other words...

"We'll see how voltage changes from gravity here on earth to zero gravity in space," said Cash.

When it's all said and done, students hope it's more than just a prototype or class research project.

"We want to be able to apply it to the real world such as people at NASA or even Blue Origin and show them what we've tested and show them how they can apply it to their space systems," said Culver.

The students learned about a lot more than just engineering.

"It really has taught us how to work in teams, how to start a project from the ground up, and through final delivery and even hopefully seeing it launch into space," said Cash.

One year ago, the students started this project and with the research they found, some are looking to make a career out of it.