Before the ‘Rockets’ Red Glare’ of July 4, Celebrate UVA’s Spaceport Launch
![Screengrab from a video of a rocket on a launch pad](/sites/default/files/styles/wide_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/Prelaunch-from-drone_1440.jpg?itok=vGWY84dH)
Video of the UVA launch courtesy of the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association.
UVA Rocketry team members successfully launched — and recovered from the rain-soaked New Mexico desert — their 11-foot rocket, Sabre 1, at the Spaceport America Cup 2024 on Friday, June 21, as part of a weeklong event that began June 17.
It was the team’s first-ever entry in the world’s largest collegiate rocketry competition. The Experimental Sounding Rocket Association organizes as many as 150 teams each year at Spaceport America, a commercial launch site in the Jornada del Muerto desert basin, 45 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
![](/sites/default/files/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/Rocket_TeamPhoto_1440.jpg)
Nine University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science students, all leaders on the student-run UVA Rocketry competition team, and their adviser, Mike McPherson, represented the University.
The week’s activities included a session with the competition’s judges, who inspected the rocket and quizzed the students on their design and fabrication choices.
‘A Textbook Flight’
After a couple of scrubbed launches due to a GPS issue and bad weather — including an epic dust storm and high winds that wrecked much of the tent city set up for the competition — Friday’s launch culminated a long year of designing, building and testing Sabre 1.
When the moment finally came, “we all watched a textbook flight,” McPherson said. The parachutes gently landed the rocket in the high desert.
“Our recovery team made the 4-mile walk out and back in the rain through the increasingly muddy desert to return with Sabre 1 intact and big grins on their faces,” he said.
The team, competing in a 10,000-foot category, wasn’t among the winners, but for its first outing as a UVA Experiential Learning Program competitive team, New Mexico was an unqualified success.
Sabre 1 By the Numbers
Rocket Specs
Height – 11.3 ft.
Diameter – 6 in.
Launch mass 65.69 lbs.
Motor diameter – 98mm
Motor – Aerotech M2500
Airframe – G12 fiberglass
Fins – Carbon-fiber reinforced G10 fiberglass
Flight Data
Apogee (maximum altitude) – 8,013 ft.
Maximum speed – Mach 0.84 (645 mph)
Flight duration – 164 seconds
![A rocket launching, photo courtesy of the Experimental Rocket Sounding Association](/sites/default/files/styles/full_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/Launch-from-drone_1440.jpg?itok=AjhjGfdF)
The Flight Path to New Mexico
Read about UVA Rocketry’s journey to the New Mexico desert by way of a farm field in Virginia.
Photo Gallery
![A large group of people, some holding rockets.](/sites/default/files/styles/wide_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/spa_cup_2024-01_2500.jpg?itok=Bd94yPb8)
More than 120 U.S. and international teams participated in the 2024 Spaceport America Cup, the world’s largest collegiate rocketry competition. (Experimental Sounding Rocket Association)
![A group of people holding a rocket](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_full_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/Raising-the-launch-tower_1440.jpg?itok=NxLrgh_Y)
Loading Sabre 1 and raising the launch tower. (Mike McPherson)
![A group of people in orange shirts in the New Mexico desert holding parts of a rocket.](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_full_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/Recovery-crew-with-rocket_1440.jpg?itok=3ymp9AOo)
Using Sabre 1’s onboard GPS, the team’s recovery crew walked 4 miles round trip in the rainy desert to retrieve the rocket, undamaged after its successful launch and landing. (Mike McPherson)
![Selfie of people in a van with a rocket](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_full_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/TotingTheRocket_6163_1440.jpg?itok=6UsH9MaI)
Driving Sabre 1 to the launch pad. (Emma Lubeshkoff)
![A group of people standing next to a rocket](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_full_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/Launch-crew-with-rocket_720.jpg?itok=WFloUTvV)
The launch crew with Sabre 1 at the launch pad. (Mike McPherson)
![A rocket launching into the sky](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_full_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/Launch-from-side_723.jpg?itok=wxqwmgdU)
Sabre 1 leaves the tower. (Mike McPherson)
![A group of college students working on a project in a garage](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_full_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/RocketGarage_0427_1440.jpg?itok=SXImddbz)
The students rented a house with a garage for the week to have room to work on Sabre 1. (Photo courtesy of Edison Wong)
![People standing around a poster](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_full_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/RocketConvCtr_0017_1440.jpg?itok=cvmpDFFA)
UVA Rocketry president Daniel Tohti describes the UVA team’s design approach to competition judges. (Mike McPherson)
![Students working on a project](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_full_xxsml/public/_common/student-groups-programs/UVA_Rocketry/RocketTent_0059_1440.jpg?itok=Pr-46YK9)
The team got to work before the sun was fully up. Jijun Wang holds lights for Edison Wong as he wires the rocket’s electronic instruments. (Mike McPherson)