Long Island students soar in world’s largest rocket contest

The Stony Brook School placed 10th out of over 900 teams that competed in the national finals of the 2024 American Rocketry Challenge.

The STEM competition, held at Great Meadow in The Plains, Va. on Sunday, May 19, was sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association, National Association of Rocketry and more than 20 industry partners.

More than 5,000 students from 45 states competed for a total of $100,000 in prize money and scholarships. Representing The Stony Brook School were 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students Sebastian Guadalupe-Peña, David Guo, Justin Hu, Stasiu Sack, David Zhang, Vincent Zhao, and Roger Zhou.

“Congratulations to all the participants and winners of this year’s American Rocketry Challenge,” said Pam Erickson, senior vice president and chief communications officer, RTX. “The dedication and skills they have demonstrated are the foundation for future success in engineering solutions for complex problems.”

To qualify for the National Finals, participating teams designed, built, and launched model rockets that could safely carry a payload of one raw egg with a target flight duration of 43 to 46 seconds and an altitude of 820 feet. 

The rookie team’s stellar finish earned the students $1,500, as well as another $500 for their school. For finishing in the top 25, the team also secured an invitation to participate in NASA’s Student Launch initiative, a nine-month long challenge culminating each year with a final launch in Huntsville, Ala., home of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

Thanks to their incredible success as a first-year team making the finals, Stony Brook is starting a rocketry program to inspire students’ interest in STEM.

Click here for the full results of the contest.

To learn more about NASA’s Student Launch initiative visit: rocketcontest.org