The rocket team representing the Vanderbilt Aerospace Design Laboratory (VADL) attempted a very challenging payload deployment and landing sequence (video) for the 2025 NASA University Student Launch Competition May 4 at Bragg Farms, just north of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
“The entire rocket and payload sequence went off perfectly for the team and it is a tremendous accomplishment,” said A.V. Anilkumar, Mark Dalton Director of Experiential Learning in Aerospace Engineering and mechanical engineering professor of the practice.
NASA announced University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) results June 13. Vanderbilt placed fifth in a field of 53 challengers. James Madison University was the overall winner. The competition, which is part of NASA’s STEM engagement initiative, challenges students to design, build, and launch rockets carrying scientific payloads.
The event was part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the Student Launch program and brought together college, and university students from across the U.S. to showcase and launch their high-powered rocketry designs. The 9-month challenge requires teams to achieve altitudes between 4,000 and 6,000 feet before executing a successful landing and payload mission.
This is Vanderbilt’s 18th year to compete and VADL teams have won seven championships and a total of about 35 major awards including payload design, rocket design, educational engagement, project review, and closest to altitude awards from NASA.
“Winning outright used to be a tradition for the last decade,” said Anilkumar, VADL director. “As the evaluation parameters have changed over the years, achieving 100% performance success of the payload and rocket designs and finding unique aerospace career opportunities, has become the primary goal for the team.”
On the ascent to apogee, the highest point of ascent, the VADL rocket retained the payload safely and on its return journey it was designed to autonomously jettison the payload at 300 ft. The payload on jettison was to land upright and unfurl radio frequency (RF) antennas for transmission of mission parameters to ground station.
“All teams were required to send an RF transmission of the rocket flight and embedded payload landing parameters. The Vanderbilt team chose to replicate a space craft landing on an extraterrestrial body by jettisoning the payload and landing it upright,” Anilkumar said. “Only two teams were permitted to jettison the payload and Vanderbilt’s succeeded 100%.”
The Bucket’s performance
Getting the rockets launched this year was challenging for all the competing teams. Launch was postponed by a day due to inclement weather and cloud cover that was too low for any rocket to fly to 5,000 feet.
“Most teams waited all day Sunday to see a break in the clouds. Finally, at around 3 p.m., when teams were getting restless, there was a sudden break in the clouds and NASA rushed through the last volley of launches and we were thankful that we could even get to launch,” said rocket team leader and mechanical engineering senior Ian Morgan.
On launch day, the Vanderbilt’s rocket—The Bucket—reached a height of 4,432 feet, close to predictions, and the payload was autonomously jettisoned at 300 feet during rocket descent. The payload software log was examined post-flight. Launch was detected at ascent and low-altitude tracking was activated at 740 ft during descent. Payload landing was confirmed after maintaining stability for 5 seconds, after which parachute was detached immediately, and the RF transmission was activated for a period of 5 minutes.
“All eight data points related to flight and landing were successfully transmitted during the payload’s flight, verified by software and confirmed with a handheld receiver in the field,” said electrical engineering senior Patrick Chen, lead payload electronics engineer. A re-flyable test replicating the competition day payload configuration and transmission range also was performed after the competition to show that all systems were operational.
Due to the unexpected cloudy weather, a short launch window, and scheduling constraints, five rockets were launched within a short 10-minute window to ensure all remaining teams had the opportunity to fly before sky conditions changed.
“This compressed launch cadence resulted in overlapping rocket flights and raised some concerns regarding RF congestion and the team communicated this to NASA in their final report,” Anilkumar said. “The fun part of this experiential program is that a new VADL team is ready to take over and take up the battle again, just when you start thinking it is time to tune down.”
Contact brenda.ellis@vanderbilt.edu