The UTC Rocket Mocs won 1st place in the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space University Student Rocketry Challenge. Since UTC last competed in the challenge, EDS has grown from more than 80 chapters across the country to 113 chapters, including at Purdue University, Arizona State University, MIT and Tennessee Tech University. The Rocket Mocs team represented UTC at the SpaceVision conference, where presentation of their design and the altitude and velocity it achieved drew gasps of surprise. It is believed that the Rocket Mocs’ winning altitude of 11,563 feet is the highest in competition history, and the world record altitude for this combination of motors and specific impulse is only 3,500 feet higher.
Recovery of the final design (recording required by competition):
This video shows how much the students wanted the win. They walked through Florida swamps in waist-deep water and being cut by sawgrass to locate their sustainer and record the altimeter notifications.
Video of all three launches:
So happy to be a Tripoli L1 mentor for this year’s team having founded the group last year. They put in a lot of effort this year. It took multiple rockets each with a learning curve to get to this point. It only went 1301.3 mph. That’s what engineering is about, design, test, fly, and repeat.