Imagine seeing a rocket shoot hundreds of feet in the sky. You might think that it was some company testing their new designs, but it was actually just a group of high school students.
Sohan Govindaraju ’26, rocketry club leader, gives an overview of what the rocketry club is and what they do.
“Jesuit's Rocketry Team has been around for the past three years and have conducted over 40+ launches in the springtime over that time, our job as leaders in the club is to create a community that fosters growth for engineering, marketing and continued STEM interest for all those interested,” he said.
All of these aspects of engineering, marketing, and an interest for STEM goes towards the designing process of a rocket. Co-club leader Parker Bailey ’26 has developed a new air brake feature which the club uses to time the rocket to the ideal height that they are aiming for.
“He developed the design on CAD and went through so many revisions to perfect the design,” Govindaraju said. “Additionally, Wyatt Morris ’26 and Isaac Poothulil ’26 were instrumental for designing and printing our new 3d-printed fins that we used. Andy Ma ’28, Arnav Bansal ’28, , and Arav Anand ’28 worked on rocket assembly parts,” said Govindaraju.
All of these aspects prove the complexity of designing a rocket and all the technical aspects that you have to deal with in order for it to be successful.
“Usually we preorder select parts that we need before the season from Apogee who develop cardboard based rocket parts,” Govindaraju said.
Although they preorder parts, some adjustments still have to be made in order for the rocket to be eligible to compete.
“As a result of the new smart technology, we had a weight issue since the cap for how heavy the rocket is before liftoff is 650 grams, so the team had to brainstorm ideas to cut down weight in future designs of the rocket,” said Govindaraju.
All of this work and preparation in building a rocket eventually leads up to test day.
Although, depending on the weather or other circumstances with the rocket determines the amount of tests they can do.
“Well, test day preparation varies each time. Before we go out to our launch site in North Plains, which is operated by a National Association for Rocketry (NAR) member, we have a plan in place on how many launches we typically want to do,” he said.
Preparation for launches require a lot of planning and monitoring due to complex aspects of the rocket.
“At the launch site, we spend a whole lot of time prepping the rocket with packing and inspecting the parachutes, checking and installing the motors we want to use, monitoring the airbarke and simulations among other minor activities,” he said.
Testing happens in a field owned by a farmer in North Plains.
”The farmer has a relationship with the NAR moderator who grants permission for high school teams competing in the competition to fly rockets,” said Govindaraju.
The rocketry club also participates in The American Rocketry Challenge competing against other teams.
Interested in joining or watching a launch? Email Sohan Govindaraju, Dr. Shu, Ms. Chi, or Mrs. Lundy.
