Rocketry Team Places 25th at Nationals

Given their commitment and tenacity, there is little question how the young Northridge rocketry team shot into the top 25 teams in the country this year.

Mr. Tom Lipscomb brought rocketry to Northridge three years ago. He believed its combination of engineering, strategy, craftsmanship, and excitement would be good for young men. One benefit is that a single team can range from Middle through High School. The competition scores rocket launches on how close they achieve these metrics: stopping at a precise altitude (850 feet this year), returning at a precise time from launch, and whether the (raw) egg it carries is unharmed.

The student-led team of nine spent countless hours designing, simulating, modeling, building, and launching rockets as many Saturdays as possible during the season. They initially drafted two designs with specialized simulation software. Then, they built them using both off-the-shelf components as well as 3-D printing some of their own. A month into the season, they launched these first two rockets. They learned … and started over. Their final design was the result of many iterations of this process which produced ten rockets used in more than forty launches. Coach Lipscomb said, “Ideally, you get in as many launches as you can, but wind and precipitation can cancel or delay a launch. We have never canceled for temperature, even when the temperature dipped below zero.” Under his thoughtful guidance, the team worked diligently to track their progress and improve metrics with almost every launch.

Their in-season success placed them first in Illinois and qualified them for Nationals in Washington DC. With the help of several dads, they made the trip out and competed against nearly 100 teams in the nation’s capital. They finished 25th! This also earned them admission to NASA’s Student Launch Initiative.

Seventh-grader Graham Kaleta said, “Qualifying for finals at Nationals was an incredible achievement and has definitely inspired us to do even better next year.” According to Coach Lipscomb, “They’re just getting started.” Their goal for next year is to make it into the top ten at Nationals!