The BYU Rocketry Team won 1st place in Payload, Best Video, and 2nd in their rocket category at the Spaceport Cup in New Mexico.
Following last year's surprise wins at Spaceport America, BYU Rocketry returned with higher confidence and higher goals, but most of all, BYU Rocketry returned to prove they were a force to be reckoned with.
This year's rocket, Alta, competed in the 10,000 ft Commercial Off-the-Shelf division with 43.2 lbs payload of a gravity-optional 3D printer. The rocket, payload, and a video created for the competition all earned trophies.
"This year we were able to go in and [say], okay, we know what works. [That] allowed us to put our time and energy where it should have been," said Brad Hornfischer, systems lead.
He explained that BYU came to this year's competition with a need to prove themselves and a need to show their victory wasn't just a fluke.
The most nerve-wracking day for the team was launch day; because launching a rocket takes a lot of resources, the team had one test launch prior to the competition to visualize their work. The team left their hotel before sunrise to head to the launch site and set up Alta for takeoff.
"It's just kind of a surreal experience...[It's] the culmination of a year's worth of work in thirty minutes or so," Nathan Butler, team lead, said.
The team waited anxiously for their rocket to be announced, counted down, then watched in awe as their creation took off into the sky with a deafening boom. Smoke trailed behind Alta as it climbed higher and higher into the atmosphere until the payload and rocket detached, activating the recovery.
"We were counting down, and then all of a sudden [I thought], oh my gosh, this thing is going to go 10,000 feet, and my poor little payload is going to fall 10,000 feet and I'm never going to see it again," said Casey Gooch, payload lead.
She added that while the payload did sustain some damage on the recovery, the result could have been much worse. After all, a 3D printer typically isn't designed to fall 10,000 feet out of the sky.
Overall, the launch and recovery went as well as expected, leaving the team in wait for the competition results. The days leading up the launch were filled with late nights of repairing and quizzing to ensure everything was perfect for the presentation and launch.
"We're working on the rocket [late] at night, and there's rocket parts strewn all over the hotel rooms. It's kind of a funny visual," said Matt Taylor, team social media manager.
Their efforts paid off as BYU was called up to the awards podium three times during the final ceremony.
"Hearing your name called, everyone jumps up, you run down onto the floor and up onto the stage and you get the award and everyone's smiling and cheering. There's smoke blowers and bubbles and lights all over the place...definitely proud moments," Butler said.
Dr. David Fullwood, the faculty mentor for the team, expressed his pride for his students' accomplishments.
“The long evenings that turned into early mornings before the competition, and the pre-dawn final preparations paid off in a dazzling two-minute display of first-class engineering…while epitomizing the core values of BYU," he said.
The team was a well-oiled machine in the months preparatory to competition with healthy mix of friendship and discipline.
“There’s lots of camaraderie. We joked around, had fun, played in the pool and in the sand dunes and cracking jokes when we’re all stressed and tired at, you know, 3 AM driving out to the middle of the desert to go launch rockets," said Butler.
“They’re all very effective engineers. They’re all very insightful, all very hardworking. This club attracts people who want to go above and beyond," Hornfischer said.
“We’re all a bunch of tryhards. We never want to be the people that drag behind. So everyone is pushing each other to be better," said Gooch.
“This is what ‘Becoming BYU’ looks like when we give our students space to reach their potential," Fullwood said.
The team is eager to bring on new members for next year's competition and invited all to participate.
“Don’t be afraid to try things that you’re not used to or that scare you. I went straight from building an L1 rocket to being on a high-powered rocketry team," said Gooch.
“These clubs are places where you can apply the things that you’re learning in your classes and you can learn real world experience," Taylor said.
With a solidified champion status, BYU Rocketry looks forward to the future.
"There's plenty of victory lapping to do still," Butler said.
“It’s easy to see a lot of success and think you’ve hit a cap…BYU Rocketry is still growing as an organization. It’s still looking to expand its reach and its capabilities. We’re still looking to take what we’ve learned and add on to it," Hornfischer concluded.
Watch the team's winning video here.
