It's not rocket science

There are two neat benefits that I get as an aerospace engineering major.

1. Whenever I select my major from a drop-down menu, it's at the very top because of the alphabetical order.

2. I'm immune to "It's not rocket science."

I've built two rockets my entire life. Both were in high school. I still don't know how to "engineer" them for performance, but I can build them.

This first one, I built with my teammate as a group. The objective was to take an egg (payload), bring it to 400ft in the air, and land it safely.

Here are some pictures & videos:

Putting on the fins

Engine block assembly (holds the rocket motor in and reinforces structure)

Launch video

Landed OK, and our payload (a whole egg) was intact.

Later, I got an opportunity to build a much bigger one all for myself. Unfortunately, I don't have any documentation of build progress. It's a model kit from Apogee Rockets called Zephyr.

It was a bit longer than 140cm (4.6ft for my American friends), and weighed about 12N, or 1.2kg.)

This rocket launch qualified me into getting my high-power rocketry level 1 certification because it contained a H class motor.

This is the launch video, and this is the landing. It landed on my friend's car!

I had plenty of fun actually going somewhere remote and shooting all of these rockets!