SBU Rocket Team
CompletedNASA Student Launch Initiative - Launched May 1st, 2025, reaching 4,700 feet altitude with full payload recovery
Overview
I was the Embedded Systems and Controls Engineer on the Stony Brook Rocket Team, the university's AIAA chapter, through NASA's Student Launch Initiative. Our 105-inch, 21-pound rocket reached 4,700 feet and placed 24th of 53 teams with full payload recovery.
On the vehicle side I owned motor selection and RockSim simulation, running the trajectory analysis that set our altitude target, and I coordinated launch-day assembly across sub-teams. On the payload side I built the telemetry system: a multi-threaded C++ pipeline on a resource-limited board that encoded flight data into APRS packets. I tracked down a memory leak in it and put mutex guards around shared state so the threads stopped corrupting each other's data.
Results
Altitude Precision
Achieved 4,700 feet against declared target of 5,100 feet, demonstrating design accuracy within competition constraints.
Payload Integration
Transported and recovered STEMNaut payload with telemetry data collection throughout flight.
Competition Results
Ranked 24th out of 53 teams in NASA SLI, meeting design freeze requirements and maintaining consistent aerodynamic properties from subscale to full-scale testing.
Gallery
Full-Scale Rocket
Development Process
Payload Systems
Lessons
Performance Metrics
Achieved 4,700 feet altitude (92% of 5,100 feet target) with 105-inch, 21-pound full-scale rocket maintaining design consistency from subscale testing.
Design Challenges
Experienced early parachute deployment due to softened shear pin holes from pre-launch demonstrations, missing descent time requirement.
Competition Standing
Placed 24th out of 53 teams in NASA SLI with successful payload recovery.
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