Nested within the forests, the UCSC Rocket Team is the leading aerospace organization at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We design and build high-powered rockets that push the boundaries of performance while performing research missions. Rocket Team is home to a unique experience that enables students of any background or major to take on the biggest problems facing the modern aerospace industry and academia. We understand that ingenuity can come from anywhere and take us everywhere, so we embrace curiosity and persevere to build our spirit and build tomorrow!
Each year the team competes in the world's largest collegiate rocketry competition—the International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC). This competition gathers more than 6,000 students from over 175 universities around the world every year in Midland, Texas, to compete. The engineering challenge for our division: design, build, and launch a rocket from scratch to reach a peak altitude as close to 10,000 feet as possible.
Our team includes over 100 members from diverse backgrounds and fields—extending beyond just engineering. Last year, through the team's joined efforts, we impressively placed 4th in the 10K COTS division and 5th in the competition overall. This year, we plan to go even further as we work toward designing and manufacturing each of our components in-house.
Your generous contribution will help us fund this year’s rocket and cover competition costs, but more importantly, it supports the engineers of tomorrow by giving them the tools they need to succeed today.
