A group of students from Missouri S&T will launch a rocket 30,000 feet into the air over Las Cruces, New Mexico, this month as a part of the Spaceport America Cup.

The collegiate rocket competition, held June 18-22, challenges teams of college students to design, build and launch solid-, liquid- and hybrid-fuel rockets to targeted altitudes. Missouri S&T will compete in the solid-fuel category.

Missouri S&T’s Rocket Design Team’s main goal for the competition is to reach a target altitude while carrying a scientific payload and then recover the rocket by deploying high-drag pull-down parachutes.

S&T’s rocket, named Nova, is a 15-foot high-altitude rocket. This is the largest rocket the team has built for the competition. Its propulsion system will propel the rocket to the team’s highest attempted altitudes at speeds exceeding 2,000 miles per hour.

For more information about the team and to see videos and photos of the rocket, visit facebook.com/rocketdesignteam.

The Rocket Design Team and Liquid Rocket Design Team are two of 20 student-run teams in Missouri S&T’s Student Design and Experiential Learning Center (SDELC). The SDELC, housed in the Kummer Student Design Center, provides teams with computer design laboratories, a manufacturing shop, office space and logistical support. Design teams mirror small start-up companies that plan large-scale projects, organize into departments, raise funds, communicate their ideas and solve open-ended design challenges. Almost every team competes annually at an event against other collegiate teams from around the country and the world. For more information about the teams, visit design.mst.edu.