UNC Charlotte Rocketry Team (NASA Student Launch) 2026-27

The Charlotte 49er Rocketry Team represents UNC Charlotte each year in NASA’s University Student Launch Initiative (USLI), competing against more than 60 collegiate teams from across the country. Throughout the nine-month competition, students take a rocket from concept to flight—designing, analyzing, manufacturing, testing, launching, and safely recovering a fully functional high-powered rocket and its scientific payload.

NASA introduces a new payload challenge each year, requiring students to develop innovative systems capable of accomplishing complex mission objectives. Previous challenges have ranged from collecting and transmitting survivability data to deploying an autonomous drone from the rocket.

For more than a decade, the Charlotte 49ers Rocketry Team has represented UNC Charlotte in this demanding competition and established a strong reputation for technical achievement, innovation, and competitive success.

This Year's Mission

The 2026–2027 competition presents one of NASA USLI's most challenging missions yet.

Following launch and successful recovery of the rocket, our payload must autonomously complete a simulated planetary exploration mission. After landing, the payload must autonomously orient itself, identify and capture an image of an unknown target and determine its distance from the rocket's landing location.

Successfully completing this mission will require our team to integrate mechanical design, electronics, embedded systems, PCB Design, imaging, sensing, software, and autonomous operation into one reliable system. It is exactly the type of multidisciplinary engineering challenge students will encounter in the aerospace and technology industries after graduation.

The challenge is ambitious—but so is our team. With the support of our sponsors, we intend to continue building on the Charlotte 49er Rocketry Team's history of success and compete for another first-place finish.

2023-2024 Full-Scale Rocket Launch

Our goal from fundraising will be to gain supplemental help for costs incurred, the amount raised will be broken down into the following categories: Payload, Vehicle, Safety, Travel, and Outreach events. An estimated $3,000 will go toward the payload, which includes all mechanical components, custom PCB's and electronics. An estimated $7,500 will go towards the vehicle, which includes the motors, composite materials for airframes exterior tubing, parachutes, and high performance filaments. Safety costs will be vital in protecting our team and they are estimated to be around $750. Expected costs for competition week in Huntsville, AL (Rocket City USA) are estimated to be around $8,500 for food, transportation, and lodging. Finally, $1,000 will go towards inspiring future engineers at our STEM Outreach events.

Building More Than Rockets

NASA USLI extends well beyond the launch field. STEM engagement is an important part of the competition and an important part of our team's mission. The Charlotte 49ers Rocketry Team sees outreach not simply as a competition requirement, but as an opportunity to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. Each year, our students work with young people throughout Charlotte and the surrounding region to introduce them to aerospace, engineering, and hands-on STEM experiences. Our team consistently works beyond NASA's minimum outreach requirements because we understand how powerful early exposure to engineering can be in shaping a student's future.

This year, we plan to expand those efforts through visits to K–12 schools throughout the Charlotte region and through our partnership with Discovery Place. Our goal is not only to reach more students, but to make each interaction more meaningful.

Rather than simply talking about engineering, we want students to experience it. Planned demonstrations include interactive 3D-printed modular rockets, engineering activities, previous competition vehicles, payload systems, and opportunities for students to interact directly with the college students who designed and built them.