Astrogazer’s Model Rocket Design Competition!

A few weeks ago, we launched a rocket design competition in the junior school. The budding young Astrogazers were given the task of creating their very own rockets and have been making models out of anything they could find in their homes – from straws, to bottles, to tin cans, to Pringles tubes! We were delighted to receive over 30 entries and we were blown away by the stunning creativity of them all! We were looking for a rocket that was intuitive, creative and showed the sheer enthusiasm the students have for space.

At Astrogazers, we are passionate about getting the young girls in the junior school more involved in STEM. By introducing a range of competitions and events, Astrogazers is able to provide the younger years with a more detailed, fun and engaging approach towards STEM, preparing them for what they may come across in later years. Few careers in STEM are known to many, and it can be hard to know what to look up and aspire to become. Our rocket competition was one of our steps in getting every girl in the school involved in STEM in a way in which they can aim high and reach for the stars (quite literally with their incredible designs)!

One of the most impressive features of these model rockets was the mobile element included by many! It provided a more exciting approach to the challenge that we did not expect from such a young age group! It was truly wonderful to witness the great amount of imagination and originality that was within each of the rockets submitted and it proved extremely difficult to choose our winners.

For one aspiring Astrogazer and future engineer, our competition was taken one step further. Emma (Year 3), designed, constructed and launched her very own model rocket that she 3D printed herself! We were amazed by all the skills she demonstrated, especially her scientific approach during the lead up to the launch, which she documented for us in her very own video. She carried out stability tests, measured masses and even ran simulations before launching her rocket. And afterwards, just like a professional, she gave an interesting response to the entire process. It was touching to see how we had really inspired the younger generation and sparked an interest within them to learn more about Astrophysics and this absolutely fascinating side of STEM in general! Emma should be really proud of herself and definitely deserves the highest praise of well done for all of her hard work and efforts. Watch Emma’s rocket preparations and launch.

We are so impressed with the quality of all the entries, as well as the creativity expressed by each and every one of them. So much detail and thought was put into every design and each one was perfectly unique and cleverly made. We would just like to congratulate all the budding Astrogazers who took part and are very excited to be announcing the winners after half-term!

See all of the incredible rocket designs here and here.

Anaiya S
Crew Operations & Resources Engineer

Isla M
Flight Director

Aashka P
Assistant Flight Director