Alabama Rocketry Association Crowdfunding Spring 2024

Founded in 2015, Alabama Rocketry Association (ARA) is The University of Alabama's rocket team dedicated to providing world-class collegiate engineering experiences for students by competing in national and international rocketry competitions. We compete in two different rocketry competitions around the country and have been steadily gaining momentum and recognition throughout collegiate rocketry. One of the competitions focuses on solid rocketry: rockets that fly with engines which have solid fuel inside of them. Our solid rocketry team placed 25th out of a field of nearly 160 teams in last year’s NASA Student Launch Challenge. The other competition we compete in is the Dollar Per Foot liquid rocketry competition, sponsored by Friend of Amateur Rocketry. A liquid rocket is more akin to what NASA would use for rocket launches, and our team has become the first team in the entire SEC to build and hot-fire a functioning liquid rocket engine, among other "firsts".

Alabama Rocketry Association also prides itself on our commitment to community involvement within Tuscaloosa County. We are involved with the Tuscaloosa Rocketry Challenge, a program in which university students visit each 6th science class in the county and teach about the principles of rocket engineering, and then give each student the opportunity to design and build their own water rocket. TRC has become a highlight of the school year for many 6th graders over the past few years, and many younger students have shared that they can't wait to enter 6th grade, simply because that's "the rocket year".

Embarking on a new chapter this Spring 2024, we’re initiating a fundraising drive with a singular vision: to bolster the resources for rocket components, operational logistics, and foundational infrastructure that support our competitive endeavors. Your support is crucial; every donation helps our teams strive to the top and break new records.

For the current academic period, we’re proud to showcase multiple teams under the ARA banner:

Our solid rocketry team is planning on competing in the 2025 Spaceport America Cup 10,000 feet challenge. This includes designing, building, and launching a high powered rocket producing multiple thousand pounds of thrust to 10,000 feet above the desert sands of New Mexico while developing a complex, unique, and innovative payload that has never been designed before. Our goals are to advance current research in historically under-investigated aerospace topics and provide a large scale scientific value to the student rocketry and greater STEM community. Your monetary support will directly contribute to the construction of an advanced high-powered sounding rocket and a cutting-edge payload design that will propel our research goals forward.

The liquid rocketry team, competing in the Friends of Amateur Rocketry Dollar-Per-Foot challenge, is gearing up to complete their second hotfire since their initial test in 2022. With an entirely redesigned test stand, the team is hoping for 1000 pounds of thrust in a 9.5 second-long test. After further validation of their engine and propulsion system, the team will be embarking on the construction of the rocket structure and will integrate their propulsion system with the flight vehicle. Planned for a flight to 30,000 feet in 2025, ARA will be launching The University of Alabama's (and the SEC Conference's) first ever liquid rocket!

Your support can turn the tide, driving us toward unprecedented achievements and fostering the next generation of engineering excellence. Join us on this thrilling journey of discovery, innovation, and triumph. Let’s reach new heights together -- Roll Tide!