By Alabama Public Radio
Huntsville, AL – A team from Utah State University claimed victory in NASA's 12th annual Great Moonbuggy Race Saturday with a super-light weight aluminimum design vehicle. In only its second year of competition, Utah State beat 28 other college and university teams from 14 states, including Alabama, from Germany and Puerto Rico. The team had a winning time of 3:59. vehicles powered by one male and one female raced one at a time over a half-mile obstacle course of simulated moonscape terrain at Huntsville's U.S. Space and Rocket Center. The winning team earned a cash award and a trophy-replica of the original lunar roving vehicle. The event was inspired by the lunar roving vehicle project, which was successfully completed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville during the 1960s and 1970s. In the high school division race that featured 44 teams Friday, Madison County Career Academy in Huntsville took first place with a time of 4:08.