Small rockets, like this one, give our students their rocket certification. It’s the first step to launching bigger vehicles and bigger careers.
So this is how you design a rocket …
Students build and design their own projects. It teaches them to work as a team, just like in the real world.
Not all engines are built the same. To fire in a national competition, you need statistical measurement on how your rocket engine works. The Rocket Engine Test Stand measures rocket thrust in all 6 degrees of freedom – x, y, z, pitch, roll & yaw. It is located here on campus, behind the machine shop.
Getting ready to launch – the Student Rocket Society test fires one of their rocket engines to verify thrust operating nominally.
The first student rocket was launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 28th, 2006.
Rocket thrust needs to be measured in 6 degrees of freedom. It’s critical to have the set up correct.
Setting up the rocket test stand for firing a rocket engine.
It is quite a big bang when we test the rockets. Very strict safety protocols need to be followed but it is an amazing on-campus site.
Marshall Space Flight Center held the University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) which Florida Tech participated in during 2009.
Set to launch a slosh payload, the Florida Tech rocket sits on the pad in Palm Bay, Florida, at the spaceport rocket ranch in Jan. 2009. This USLI test flight is done right down the road. The pad itself is mobile and currently located behind the Florida Tech machine shop.
Launching a Florida Tech rocket close to the campus, in Palm Bay, at the spaceport rocket ranch.
Not only were we rookie of the year, but Florida Tech won Top Payload at the USLI (University Student Launch Initiative) at Marshall Space Flight Center in 2009.
It’s a ritual, prior to launch, for each team member to autograph their rocket. Everyone worked so hard and then it all lives or dies in a few seconds of glory/defeat. Signing personalizes the effort.
Teams record specs for all launches to ensure they are reaching the maximum altitude, as they are judged for how close they hit the mark.
Teams record specs for all launches to ensure they are reaching the maximum altitude, as they are judged for how close they hit the mark.
The happy Florida Tech Student Hybrid rocket team for the 2010-2011 competition has just won the National Association of Rocketry precision altitude contest.
NASA sponsors our students’ payloads on a zero gravity plane.
Student, Torin Crandal (Bristol, VT), floating during the NASA Zero-G flight where Florida Tech students study the behavior of liquid dynamics in reduced gravity.
It’s a blast for the Florida Tech student rocket society in the annual Hybrid Rocket Competition. The society’s high altitude team took first place in the 2014 competition, beating nine other universities. The precision altitude team took home second place in its category, too. Every year students take on solid rocket motor, liquid and hybrid rocket competition projects; they design, build and test, launching in remote locations, sometimes firing up their rocket motor on campus, demonstrating its power to the community. You’ll always find at least one rocket project every April in the Northrop Grumman Student Design Showcase, where students earn prizes for their projects and get them seen by aerospace industry visitors. Florida Tech has bragging rights as the first university to successfully launch a student-designed and built rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Station. Students also conduct rocket propellant research, testing their dynamics in space by flying with their experiments on ZeroG research aircraft.
