SEDS ASU Rocketry Division Spaceport America Cup 2020

​What is ESRA Spaceport America Cup?

The Spaceport America Cup is designed around IREC – the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition for student rocketry teams from all over the country and around the world. With over 120 teams from colleges and universities in fourteen countries, 2018 was the competition’s biggest year yet. Students launched solid, liquid, and hybrid rockets to target altitudes of 10,000 and 30,000 feet.

The lessons learned from the past two years have given SEDS-ASU Rocketry Division the opportunity to deliver a high performance rocket this year. We will be creating a rocket that will rely on commercially-off-the-shelf (COTS) motors to hit 10,000 feet while carrying an 8.8 lb functional research payload.

What is SEDS?

SEDS is an independent, 501c3 non-profit, student-based organization which empowers young people to participate and make an impact in space exploration. SEDS helps students develop their technical and leadership skills by providing opportunities to manage and participate in national projects as well as to attend conferences, publish their work, and develop their professional network in order to help students become more effective in their present and future careers in industry, academia, government, and education.

SEDS was founded as a chapter-based organization in 1980 at MIT by Peter Diamandis, at Princeton University by Scott Scharfman, and at Yale University by Richard Sorkin. SEDS-USA was founded as a national group in 1982 by Peter Diamandis, Bob Richards, and Todd Hawley. The largest student-run space organization in the world, it consists of an international community of high school, undergraduate, and graduate students from a diverse range of educational backgrounds in chapters all over the world, including Canada, India, Israel, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Who is SEDS-ASU Rocketry Division?

SEDS-ASU Rocketry Division is a chapter of this student run organization which won chapter of the year last year. We are college students taking the initiative to learn about high-powered rocketry through hands on experience. Most of our students come from an engineering background but students of any background are welcome as long as they show an interest in rocketry. Our goal is to educate the community on the amazing possibilities and excitement that rocketry brings to the table. It is important to every one of us to expand the possibilities that space exploration could bring. Most of our work involves developing space vehicles that could help us get to space. Currently, our members are working on projects that benefit and prepare each of them for their future careers.