MOBILE, AlabamaWALA) – South Alabama students hope to build a rocket that will reach 30,000 feet in the air for a rocket launch competition in June.

It is one of the most prestigious collegiate rocket competitions in the country.

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics South Vice President Kyle Kovalchick said the team submitted its application to compete in the annual spaceport competition and this year they are aiming for the stars.

“This one, we’re going to increase the complexity a little bit. We’re going to have custom machine fins, we’re going to do some staging and flying, and we’re going to shoot at 30,000 feet and hopefully get first place in the 30,000 foot category,” he said. -he declared.

The central goal of the team is always learning.

“We like to take on challenges that we don’t necessarily know how to tackle yet and this club allows you to jump into that and learn so much,” Kovalchick said.

“You get to do a lot of creative things and work on really in-depth designs on these rockets and I love that part,” explained AIAA Underclassman President Will Dollison.

AIAA President Matthew Van Welzen participated in the Spaceport competition last June and can’t wait to return.

“It was great to be able to hang out with all the people at SALT and then focus heavily on the competition and successfully launching the rocket,” he said.

Van Welzen said building these rockets would not be possible without their sponsors.

“With their help, we were able to create this rocket there and pursue our future goals.”

Members of the launch team say it’s a great learning experience.

“It creates a really safe space for students to learn engineering outside of the classroom and be able to make mistakes and things like that. So I love the culture here at AIAA and being part of of the student launch team,” the recovery manager said. and Student Outreach Coordinator for SALT Megan Jordan.

And the opportunities are endless.

“Alabama is actually one of the leading states when it comes to research and the aerospace industry in general and so yes, we have the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and it’s the rocket town, but we do a lot of aerospace things here with Airbus,” said the associate professor. Department of Aerospace and Biomedical Mechanical Engineering Carlos Montalvo. “My graduates from my lab all work at Airbus, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, NASA, you know, you name it.”

The team is asking for community support to help cover the cost of resources needed for the rocket and travel expenses to travel to the Spaceport competition in New Mexico.

You can find the link to the GoFundMe here and if you want to contact the team you can do so here.

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