Rocket Team

Grades

9th through 12th

Locations

MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Mentors

Ariane Chepko, Stephanie Couch and Anuja Mahashabde (2007 to 2009)
Dr. Peter Young (2004 to 2007)

Advisors

Dr. Karen Wilcox
Ms. Raji Patel

Recent Activity

The Rocket Team is in hiatus at the moment.

Check out our Spring 2009 maiden launch photos and videos!

A record number of more than 25 high school girls from Cambridge, Boston, Lexington, Arlington, Worcester are members of our All Girls Rocket Team, hosted by MIT's AeroAstro Department and Science Club for Girls.

The teams spent the fall building and launching model rockets. They then used RockSim to design their rockets to meet TARC specs. This winter, they've been building their rockets. The preliminary launch was March 14th and the Rockets flew beautifully. See videos and pix above. They will launch the redesigned and reinforced rockets in time to qualify for the TARC challenge.

Read about the team's accomplishments in 2007.

History

Written by Ashlee, SCFG Peer Leader and Rocket Team member
Edited by Louisa
2005

Science Club for Girls' Rocket Team is a group of girls who get together every other Saturday at MIT with the help of Professor Peter Young and his undergraduate mentors. We compete in Team America Rocketry Challenge. We are the only all girl group competing in this great rocket challenge. In 2005, the Rocket Team made a rocket that flew 1,125 ft up in the air. We made it to alternate list in finals. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go to Virginia to show that girls can do whatever the boys can do too. The rocket team will make it this year!! This year, the teams who make it to the finals will build a rocket that will fly for the longest amount of time. We have already started building our rockets at MIT.

Dr. Peter Young is a senior lecturer at MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has taught us so much about rockets. He has given up his time on Saturdays to teach us rocket science. He has taught us how to build them also! He has inspired girls to keep coming every year because we are so excited about learning and about the environment in which we learn (MIT.) Professor Young hasn't just made this a learning experience for us, but he's made us realize that this can be a fun career for some of us in the future. And, the future isn't that far away.

Girls from the Rocket Club: we can't go back and say we haven't learned anything in our years of middle and high school. Because we have, and it is about rockets!!!!

Watch some short films made by the Science Club for Girls Media Team: Opening, Launch, Sports and History

The Boston Globe wrote an interesting article on the Rocket Team the year of the Challenger accident.

Supporters

This team is made possible through the generous support of The American Institute of Aeronautics, Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium and the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.