Photo of the Week: CU Sounding Rocket Laboratory
Several Sounding Rocket Lab team members prepare to launch their self-designed, self-built rockets.
On the CU Boulder campus, a group of about 100 dedicated students are working hard in the Sounding Rocket Laboratory. Their goal: to send things into space.
The team of students works together to create sounding rockets, which are used to take measurements and test instruments that are used on satellites and spacecraft. The CU Sounding Rocket Laboratory (SRL) is a space that, as the club states, “is built on reckless ambition and continuous learning.” In the photo above, taken Sept. 22, 2019, members of the SRL team prepare to launch rockets they designed and built themselves. If their launches are successful, they will earn Level 1 certification with the Tripoli Rocketry Association, one of two certifying entities for amateur high power rocketry in the United States.
Currently, the team is focused on the development of three programs that are producing vehicles capable of reaching space. The team has also been developing two liquid engines with state-of-the-art industry manufacturing partnerships that the team states “will truly shape the future of SRL and the field of student rocketry.”
The SRL team is made up of students from a variety of disciplines including engineering, physics and business. The team writes, “Despite having so many members from different fields, there’s an incredible sense of cohesion fostered by our mutual desire to accomplish great things. Everyone is dedicated to learning from each other and teaching one another.”
Photo courtesy of Sounding Rocket Laboratory Instagram @soundingrocketlab.