On a warm Saturday morning, a group of UCF students set out on a mile-long walk across the Mojave Desert to retrieve the rocket they launched at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry 51025 Competition. For some, the walk would have been a tiring trek. But for the Knights, this was a victory lap. They just successfully launched the rocket that they built from scratch \u2014 with no prior experience \u2014 10,750 feet in the air.<\/p>\n
The launch was so successful it landed the team in first place for the 10K Open Class category, marking the first time a team from UCF has won a top spot in this competition. Three UCF teams also earned first, second and third place in the 5,000-feet division of the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo win first place in the 10,000 feet competition is almost surreal,\u201d says Dawson Wells ’22<\/strong>, an aerospace engineering major and the recovery lead for the team. \u201cStarting this project, none of us had any prior rocketry experience. We had to do our own research, reach out to UCF alumni and connect with many rocketry experts to make this project work and succeed. There was a lot of trial and error, but we kept putting in effort and never gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n The journey to the FAR competition started two years ago, when a group of Senior Design<\/em> students, led by aerospace engineering alumnus Jake Margerum \u201921<\/strong>, began work on the rocket for their capstone project, sponsored by Aerojet Rocketdyne. After they graduated, the project for the 10,000-feet division continued with the current team, comprised of seven mechanical and aerospace engineering majors who are now graduates: Ryan Cornish ’22<\/strong>, Zachary Nikollaj ’22<\/strong>, Edwin Oviedo ’22<\/strong>, Samuel Palmer ’22<\/strong>, Emma Parrish ’22<\/strong>, Nicholas Solazzo ’22<\/strong> and Wells. With no background in rocketry, the Knights assembled the rocket, tested it and presented it at the Senior Design Showcase in April this year.<\/p>\n