The AstroPilots - the DLS Rocketry Club - had its second launch of the 2024-2025 school year on Tuesday, September 28. 

This time, the group is using its largest rocket yet, a custom-made 3D printed rocket, made with the custom printer in the Robotics room. 

This rocket is made of biodegradable plastic and will have a motor similar to those previously used. 

The rocket is approximately six feet tall. The rocket, aside from the wadding to protect the inside of the rocket after the ejection blast and the recovery parachute, is all printed: the fin section, the fuselage, and the nose cone.

The rocket reached a height of 1,000 feet - measured using triangulation and a special app. 

During the 2023-2024 school year, the Rocketry Club launched a “Scout Rocket” that is about four inches tall. 

At the Club’s first meeting of the 2024-2025 school year on September 13, the group launched an Outlaw Rocket (manufactured by Estes). That rocket is more than two feet long, and the motor itself is made of a ceramic outer shell with a mix of potassium nitrate inside - essentially gunpowder. 

That launch was successful after a first try when the motor didn’t ignite properly. 

The Rocketry Club’s goals remain the same: to have a rocket reach 5,000 feet, and long-term to become the first high school team to reach space.

The Club has 15 members, primarily juniors and seniors, with a few freshmen and sophomores. 

Junior Gabe Enghauser, who leads the group, belongs to a Model Rocket Club. He is a member of the National Association of Rocketry and the Tripoli Rocketry Association. 

Gabe says both groups have similar goals, and offer certifications, via a written test and flight test, allowing you to buy higher-powered motors. For the required flight test, someone official is present for a launch and looks at the rocket and determines certification based on how well-built the rocket is, as well as how well the rocket flies and recovers.