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SPOKANE, Wash. - TheArtemis Acesare back.

The team of Inland Northwest Girl Scouts built and launched rockets for the second year in a row, as part of the nationwideAmerican Rocketry Challenge.

High school senior Faith Nolander and sophomores Natalie Olinger and Lillian Lincks have another year of experienceand their fair share of laughsunder their tool belts, and have their sights set on that trip to nationals in Washington, D.C., after not qualifying last year.

"I think our friendship has probably grown," Nolander said. "Not to sound super cheesy or whatever, but we've all kind of grown up together over the past year."

But that's not the only reason they came back for round two of the American Rocketry Challenge.

"Probably the people, probably just you guys," Nolander said to her teammates.

"The people, the actual competition is really fun," Lincks said. "It's really fun to just launch rockets."

"When it's not cold or snowing," Nolander added.

"Yes, today it's both cold and snowing, that's great," Lincks said with a laugh.

Their mentor, Marty Weiser, is a professor at Eastern Washington University and helps out a handful of different rocketry teams around the region. He said the girls' growth has been noticeable.

A group of girl scouts gathered in Cheney on Saturday to test their rocket engineering skills, with hopes they can go on to a national competition.

"To see the better understanding of the science and some of the scientific method, the engineering behind it as well, so that they can utilize that to improve their skills and hopefully use it for other things after rocketry, after school" Weiser said.

"We know more stuff now, like we can sort of rely on ourselves to know what we're supposed to do," Nolander said.

The Artemis Aces are named after NASA's Artemis program, which is seeking to land a woman on the moon by 2025.

The multi-talented girls have some super cool goals.

"I want to be a pilot, so not quite rockets but still things flying in the sky," Olinger said.

"I want to be an oncologist when I grow up, which is a cancer doctor," Lincks said.

"Next year I'll be studying geology and voice performanceI'll be double majoringat Central Washington University."

And this experience is a, well, launchpad to help them achieve their dreams.

"This kind of just cements my love for science, because really you have to understand how everything works together, and I just really enjoy it," Lincks said.

"As Girl Scouts [it's] a fantastic opportunity to connect with girls from other troops and really encourage each other to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and get passionate about it outside of the classroom," Nolander said.

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Inland Northwest Girl Scouts put engineering skills to the test again ... - KHQ Right Now