The American Rocketry Challenge

Designed, built, and flew mid-power rockets to a target altitude of 800 feet within a 40–43 second flight window, while safely carrying a raw hen's egg that had to survive landing uncracked. Our team placed in the top 100 out of 800+ nationally competing teams in the 2021 season.

Goal800 ft altitude, 40–43 sec flight, raw egg payload uncracked on landing

ToolsRockSim, OpenRocket, SolidWorks, Excel for post-flight data analysis

ResultTop 100 of 800+ nationally competing teams (National Finalist)

RoleTeam Leader — design, simulation, and build coordination

Design Process

Simulated flight trajectories in RockSim and OpenRocket, iteratively optimizing fin geometry and nosecone profile in CAD to meet the competition-specified altitude and duration window with the required egg payload.

Simulation and Testing

Each design iteration was validated against trajectory simulations before fabrication. Post-flight accelerometer and altimeter data were analyzed in Excel to compare actual performance against predicted trajectories.

Build and Launch

The team built multiple rocket configurations through the qualifying and finals rounds. Motor selection, recovery system design, and egg protection all had to work together under the strict competition rules.

Competition Result

National Finalist in the 2021 American Rocketry Challenge. The competition is the world's largest student rocketry event, with over 800 teams competing across the United States each year.

Project Media

Rocket hardware and the simulations behind it.

Rocket standing on the launch pad — Rocket ready for a qualifying flight at the local launch site.

Rocket at the finals event — At the TARC National Finals event in Virginia.

RockSim simulation output — RockSim simulation predicting altitude, velocity, and acceleration through the flight envelope.

Trajectory simulation graph — Trajectory simulation used to validate motor selection and fin geometry against the 800 ft target.