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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Colorado kids rocketed into the record books after helping with the launch of the world’s largest high-powered sports rocket this weekend.

The kids were part of a project that shot a 50-foot-tall sport rocket thousands of feet into the air above the Fort Carson Army Post on Sunday. The rocket, called Future Heavy, is the largest sport rocket to launch anywhere in the world, according to United Launch Alliance.

The Student Rocket Launch was sponsored by ULA, Ball Aerospace and the Space Foundation, and was designed to inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math, ULA said in a statement.

Working on their own time, interns at ULA built the Future Heavy rocket, and interns at Ball Aerospace built the four largest payloads, including instruments and experiments, according to the statement.

“Altogether, 68 interns and 22 mentors from ULA as well as 37 interns and 19 mentors from Ball participated this year,” ULA said.

Fifteen teams of K-12 students created additional payloads for the Future Heavy.

“The payloads include a kindergarten experiment in solar physics as well as an approximation of the Mars Curiosity rover’s entry, descent and landing when it landed on Mars,” ULA said.

“It is an exciting time to be in the space industry, and United Launch Alliance continuously works to excite the next generation of rocket scientists, astronauts, space entrepreneurs and enthusiasts,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO.

“The Student Rocket Launch offers students from kindergarten through graduate school a hands-on opportunity to design, test and ultimately launch their creations — a simulation of the multi-year missions ULA works with our customers,” Bruno said.