DECEMBER 2024

December 31, 2024 by Austin Bennett

IREC UPDATE, NEW SPONSORS, NASA GRANT AWARD, AND MORE

Welcome

Welcome to the GFU Rocket Team's December 2024 edition of our newsletter! We would like to show our appreciation for your support, financial assistance, or even curiousity for our team by sharing with you what our team has been up to lately and periodically. So strap in, close the hatch, and let's fly!

ConMet and Hyster-Yale Join the GFU Rocket Team as Industrial Sponsors

The George Fox University Rocket Team is proud to announce ContMet and Hyster-Yale Materials Handling as industrial sponsors! Through these sponsorships, industry professionals will be able to mentor the GFU Rocket Team members on our projects, and ...

OSGC NASA Grant Award

On Friday, December 6, 2024 the GFU Rocket Team was awarded a grant by the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium for the third year in a row!  This grant is for the 2024-25 Undergraduate Team Experience Award Program (UTEAP), and we are very thankful for this blessing to our team, and excited to represent OSGC with our project Trillium II. With this award, our team is able to fund the project further, purchasing materials ...

Welcome back to our team for the third year in a row, we are always excited to participate in the program and can't wait to share our progress towards the final goal of competing in the 2025 International Rocket Engineering Competition!

International Rocket Engineering Competition Update

We are excited to announce the George Fox University Rocket Team has applied and been accepted to the International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC), hosted by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA)! This competition has been famous for being the world's largest rocket competition for colleges, and we are excited to represent Christ and GFU on a world stage. A total of 196 teams have applied, and 171 have been accepted. 

To view our full IREC Progress Report 1, click here.

It is expected to be announced by the end of this month where the competition will be held, and at that point our team plans to begin making travel and lodging preparations. 

Fundraising Update

Wow, I can't believe we have already made it! Today is the last day of our crowdfunding campaign, and we have been so blessed by all of our donors who support our team to raise a total of $7,120 through 38 donations! Even though this campaign is over, our general donation page is always available and you can donate here if you wish to help us get closer to our $35,000 goal. We are halfway to being fully funded, but still need a little extra support to reach our goal. Some of the ways we have been able to use funds so far this year include:

• New Member High Power Rocketry Certification Kits

• Main & Backup Flight Computers

• GPS Tracker

• Test & Competition Motors and Motor Hardware

• Ground Station Antenna

If you would like to help support our team financially, please consider donating by clicking here. This link will take you to our fundraiser page.

If you would like to become an industry sponsor of our team, please email rocketteam@georgefox.edu for more information. We would love to help advertise your business to both potential customers, as well as to students who could be potential future employees for your company.

Thank you to those of you who have supported us thus far, we look forward to sharing the amazing progress of our team this year as we prepare to head to the 2025 IREC!

Upcoming Events

Moving forward, our team will continue to fundraise through our crowdfunding page to financially provide for this year's projects and travel/lodging. We also will continue purchasing materials for and begin building our Trillium II rocket, and building a test stand for Myrtle I to attempt a hydrostatic fire. In addition, we plan to begin working on our 1st progress report for the IREC, and celebrate our progress so far this year with a Christmas party open to all GFU students.

Event Schedule:

TBD: Community Outreach Event

Dec 31: Crowdfunding Deadline

Jan 11, 2025: Washington Aerospace Launch

Jan 31, 2025: Scholarship Summit Club Fair

NET Feb, 2025: "Trillium II" Flight Test - Launch

Feb 7, 2025: Scholarship Summit Club Fair

Feb 7, 2025: IREC Progress Report 2 Release

Feb 8, 2025: Washington Aerospace Launch (Redmond, WA)

Feb 14, 2025: Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium Symposium

Feb 28, 2025: OSGC Project Report Release

Jun 9-14, 2025: International Rocket Engineering Competition

TBD: "Myrtle I" Hydrostatic Test - Static Fire

Closing Remarks

As always, a huge thank you for taking a portion of your time to hear our team's updates, we really enjoy sharing with you as we work towards our goal of honoring the Lord with our rocketry ventures. I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas, just as we all have had celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Do not take this life for granted, for God has only given us one. May the Lord bless you as you begin the New Year, see you in 2025!