The Rocketry Club at the NASA Student Launch Challenge with their Vulcan I rocket: Left to right: Bobby Campbell (technical advisor), Cheng-Chien Chen, Ph.D. (faculty advisor), Zach Alves, James Nester, Mo Overstreet, Jonathan Myers, Caleb Knight (rocketry mentor), Erica Schulz (rocketry mentor), Rylie Roderick, Peyton Scalisi, Emma Saalwaechter, and Abby Saalwaechter. Photo courtesy Bobby Campbell
Nine months of work, including more than a few late nights, came together on April 24 when the Rocketry Club at UAB successfully sent up its Vulcan I rocket at NASA’s annual Student Launch Challenge competition.
That is not all. This scrappy group of upstarts, making its competition debut on the biggest stage of university rocketry, not only launched but completed the competition’s checklist of tasks all the way down to the ground.
UAB's Vulcan I rocket heading into the skies. Image courtesy Erica Schulz
“Launching is great,” said Jonathan Myers, a graduate student in the Department of Physics. “You work for quite a long time to build up for this one moment. But there are really several moments we were watching for. It was like, ‘Yes, it launched!’ ‘Yes, it supported its weight under thrust!’ ‘Yes, the drogue [parachute] deployed!’ ‘Yes, the main chute deployed!’ You have to consider all the different failure modes that can happen.” But “afterward, everyone is so happy,” he said. (Watch the launch and landing on YouTube here.)
Rocketry Club at UAB team members carry Vulcan I to the launch area in Huntsville. Image courtesy Erica Schulz
Success on the biggest stage
As it turned out, this interdisciplinary band of rocketeers had no failures. “It was just amazing to be there and see all this come together after our students worked so hard, putting in late nights and hard pushes,” said Erica Schulz, rocketry mentor and materials engineering Ph.D. student. Schulz began working to organize the club more than a year ago along with Caleb Knight, rocketry mentor and physics Ph.D. student. “To have a launch that we were fully prepared for, and see our students standing there with schools that have big, established rocket programs and be in our element — Caleb and I just looked at each other and grinned like proud parents,” Schulz said.
Making it to launch day at Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center was an accomplishment in itself. “We were just expecting to survive” in this debut appearance, Knight said. “But it almost feels like we were meant to be there.” The team’s success “is a testament to the people and talent we had, especially with our smaller budget,” he added.
Members of the Rocketry Club at UAB loading Vulcan I onto the launching rail. Image courtesy Erica Schulz
UAB generates excitement
Throughout the competition weekend, UAB alumni working at NASA and Huntsville-based aerospace contractors would come up to team members and say how excited they were to see their alma mater make its debut at the Student Launch Challenge, says Cheng-Chien Chen, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Physics and faculty advisor for the Rocketry Club at UAB. “To hear them be so excited got us excited,” Chen said. “This accomplishment is a testament to our students’ hard work and highlights UAB’s growing impact in STEM fields.” He also thanked the team’s technical advisor, Bobby Campbell, who offered “invaluable help” with his 50 years of hobby rocketry experience, Chen said. The rocket’s payload was created by senior students in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, led by Mo Overstreet, as part of their capstone design course. Support from the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering, along with funding from the NASA Space Grant Consortium and a number of private donors, made the team’s successful launch possible, Chen adds.
Rocketry Club President Zach Alves, graduate student in mechanical and materials engineering, is amazed at all that the group accomplished. “Having a rocketry club at UAB is a victory, getting accepted into the Student Launch Challenge is a victory, building multiple rockets is a victory,” he said.
UAB's Vulcan I rocket, with parachutes successfully deployed, returns to Earth. Image courtesy Erica Schulz
“One huge learning experience”
“We worked really long hours,” added James Nester, a mathematics major, “but it paid off well.” The group is already planning for next season, when it intends to apply for the Student Launch Challenge and the International Rocket Engineering Competition, or IREC, another elite event. “The entire process was one huge learning experience,” Myers said. “It is stressful; but you are learning project management, working as a team — and we know what to expect now.”
The launch “was amazing,” said Rylie Roderick, a biomedical engineering major. “It was really cool to experience something like that.” But the entire process was enjoyable, she adds. Roderick joined the club with no prior rocketry experience. She earned her L1 rocketry certification in the fall 2025 semester and was able to make a connection with a NASA employee at the Student Launch competition “who is helping guide me toward contacts for my future career goals,” she said.
The work that students do preparing for the Launch Competition is very similar to the work of a NASA employee, from design proposals to the detailed paperwork that the competition requires, Knight said: “It really gets people in the mindset of a NASA engineer if they want to become one.”
Rocketry Club members are all smiles after the successful launch and landing. Image courtesy Erica Schulz
Planning for next year: More sponsors and fundraising
Next year, the Rocketry Club at UAB plans to amplify its sponsorship and fundraising to enable it to continue its upward trajectory in competition. “We really want to establish connections with local companies,” Knight said.
“UAB is being recognized for doing something like this in a space that we have never been in before,” Schulz added. “We were able to put our name out there, and now people are looking out for us.”
Learn more on the website of the Rocketry Club at UAB and see their organization page on Engage, follow them on Instagram and Facebook, and email