After 8 months and countless hours spent designing, building, and testing our launch vehicles and payload, the 49er Rocketry Team placed 2nd in the NASA Student Launch competition out of 47 universities! This is the highest UNC Charlotte has ever placed in the USLI competition, and we're hoping for a 1st place victory next year.

We couldn't have done it without the endless support of our mentors: Dr. Chris Vermillion, Jerry Dahlberg, and Charlie Ogino; or the support of our family, friends, and UNC Charlotte community. Thank you once again-- our achievements would not have been possible without you!

-Ashton Johnston, '18

This past weekend, the 49er Rocketry team attended the 2018 NASA Student Launch Competition in Huntsville, Alabama and made a strong presence!  The competition flight was an overwhelming success, where Rocket Rick hit an apogee of 5381 feet, just 101 feet above our target altitude, and was fully recoverable.  Our rover, Sally's Love Bug, performed beautifully with a flawless deployment and traversed a total distance of 106 inches, exceeding the minimum requirement of 60 inches traveled, and successfully deployed it's solar panels!

Although the overall winners will not be announced until early May, the team did not leave without some new hardware.  The team was ecstatic to receive the Project Review Award, which is given to the team with the best overall combination of written reviews and formal presentations, out of all 47 universities involved in the competition!  In addition, the team received second place in overall payload design, however we received first place in rover-payload design, second place in safety documentation, and second place in rocket appearance. 

If you missed our flight, it is still available for viewing on the NASA Student Launch facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/NASAStudentLaunch/videos/1727722780614663/) at 1:03:00.  Eight months of hard work truly paid off, and without the generosity of our sponsors it wouldn't have been possible.  Thank you again for believing in our team and helping us reach new heights!

The 49er Rocketry Team would like to express again how grateful we are for your generous donations. You are the reason we are able to participate in the USLI competition each year! We leave for Huntsville,AL in just 14 days, and the final touches are being put on our rocket and payload in preparation. For the last few weeks the team has put in a significant amount of dedication and work, and we are extremely satisfied with our progress.  We wanted to share our current status with you to let you know what your donations have helped fund.

Last Friday our team gave our final presentation, the Flight Readiness Review, to a board of NASA judges, and we're proud to announce that we received overwhelming praise and encouragement. This report was a huge milestone for the team, including an almost 300 page comprehensive report and a 100+ slide presentation.  All of our reports, presentations and updates on our rocket can be found on our website, www.unccrocketry.org, feel free to check it out!

Performance-wise, we hit a few road bumps this year. The weather restricted many of our attempts to fly and test our full-scale rocket, 'Rocket Rick'. However, after many fruitless attempts, the skies finally agreed with us and allowed for an exceptional launch. 'Rocket Rick' had a successful flight and recovery in Bayboro, NC, where we tested our Drag Modulation System, which is used to bring our apogee altitude as close to the 5280 ft. goal as possible. The rocket hit an apogee just 13 ft. shy of our goal, making it a successful flight!

The final 17 days leading up to the competition flight will be busy, but we look forward to a fun competition and flying the vehicle one last time. The competition will be broadcasted live on NASA TV, and we will continue to update our facebook page,(https://www.facebook.com/Uncc49erRocketryClub/), with videos and pictures of our progress, and hope you will take the time to check it out! Thank you again for your generous donation to our team.

The crowdfunding campaign has come to an end with $10,297 raised, exceeding our initial goal.  We would like to extend our gratitude to all of our generous donors for making our campaign a success, and for making this project possible.  Although our team is fully funded, the work has just begun and we have big plans coming in the near future.   

Last week, the team presented our Preliminary Design Review to a panel of NASA personnel, concluding the final step of the PDR. A few days ago, the team also successfully completed our first sub-scale rocket launch, where our rocket ‘Tiny Rick’ soared to an altitude of 2809 ft with a near perfect performance.  With Thanksgiving break approaching the team is still hard at work preparing for our next big milestones, the completion of our Conceptual Design Review and preparation for our second sub-scale rocket launch next weekend in Midland, NC!   

Thank you again to all who donated, we wouldn’t have a team without you!