High-Power Sport Rocket

United Launch Alliance Intern Program

Overview

While Devin was working as a GNC intern at United Launch Alliance (ULA), he volunteered to work on a project manufacturing, testing, and launching three high-power sport rockets, named Galileo, Einstein, and Kepler. This project was a part of ULA's Intern Rocket Lab program, which lasted 10 weeks across June and July of 2024. Interns worked on these rockets over the course of the program and integrated payloads designed and manufactured by both BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace) interns and a selection of K-12 teams.

The intern team successfully launched and recovered all three of their rockets on July 20th, 2024 at the Hudson Rocket Ranch Launch Site in Pueblo, Colorado, where they publicly showcased their rockets launching and deploying their payloads.

YouTube Link

Technical Work

Throughout the 10-week period, Devin worked on the manufacturing of all three rockets (sanding, epoxying, drilling holes, avionics, etc). He also volunteered as a rocket lead for the Kepler rocket, where he was in charge of leading other participating ULA interns on the assembly and payload integration of the Kepler rocket.

These rockets contain three small payload bays (section B) for the K-12 teams, and a larger payload bay in the nose cone (section A) for the BAE Systems payloads. The rockets contain a booster and air frame with ejection systems for the payloads and booster separation. The booster, airframe, and payloads all have their own recovery system.