SWOSU Press Release

Weatherford, OK – Fastenal has made a generous gift of equipment in support of Southwestern Oklahoma State University’s (SWOSU) National Aeronautics & Space Administration Human Exploration Rover Challenge (NASA HERC) Team for 2024-2025.

Each year the NASA HERC features an engineering design challenge to engage students worldwide in the next phase of human space exploration. SWOSU has participated in this annual event since 2012. The competition is a more complex follow-up to the successful NASA’s Great Moonbuggy Race. The contest challenges high school and college students to create a vehicle designed to traverse the simulated surface of another world. During its 20-year run, NASA’s Great Moonbuggy Race engaged more than 10,000 students and demonstrated that these budding scientists and engineers were capable of complex work. The NASA HERC continues that tradition by providing an authentic engineering experience. Student teams design, build, and test technologies that enable rovers to perform in a variety of environments. The HERC inspires participants to become engineers and design NASA’s next-generation space systems. SWOSU’s NASA HERC Team will compete in this year’s race in April at NASA’s Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Fastenal is a distributor of wide-ranging industrial and construction products. Their service model centers on approximately 3,300 in-market locations, including one in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Each location provides tailored inventory and a dedicated sales team to support local customers. Fastenal holds to the common goal of Growth Through Customer Service®.

“We are deeply grateful to Fastenal for supporting our 2025 SWOSU NASA HERC team,” said SWOSU President Dr. Diana Lovell. “This is one-of-a-kind enhanced experiential learning for our SWOSU students, which is only made possible thanks to philanthropic partners like Fastenal.”

For more information about the SWOSU NASA HERC team, please contact the SWOSU Department of Engineering Technology in the Everett Dobson School of Business & Technology at 580-774-3162.