Highlight 01
Subscale Launch
Subscale testing allows SCRT to validate design choices, practice launch operations, collect flight data, and identify integration issues before committing to the full-scale competition vehicle.
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Oregon State University AIAA
Student Competition Rocket Team
SCRT is a fully student-run high-power rocketry team designing, building, testing, and flying competition rockets for the International Rocket Engineering Competition.
Explore SubteamsAbout SCRT
Learning The Full Rocket Life Cycle
The Oregon State University Student Competition Rocket Team is a fully student-run program where undergraduates learn the full life cycle of a high-power competition rocket. SCRT designs for the International Rocket Engineering Competition, a 10,000-foot target event that draws teams from around the world.
Students join subteams in propulsion, avionics, payload, recovery, structures, aerodynamics, and ground support, then move work from requirements and analysis into CAD, manufacturing, integration, test, and flight operations.
For the 2026 competition vehicle, SCRT is flying a COTS Aerotech N3300 motor while continuing to develop the testing infrastructure and technical knowledge needed for future student-researched propulsion systems. The rocket also includes dual-deploy recovery, onboard avionics for deployment logic, GPS tracking and live video, a 3U CubeSat payload, active airbrakes, and ground support equipment for safer launch operations.
Competition
IREC 10,000 ft target
Vehicle
Subject To Change
Payload
3U CubeSat platform
Team
Student-led engineering
Project Highlights
Recent Work
These highlights rotate through major team accomplishments, launch media, hardware testing, and subsystem progress.
Highlight 02
Full-Scale Integration
Full-scale integration brings structures, propulsion, recovery, avionics, payload, aerodynamics, and ground support into one flight vehicle. This process helps the team catch fit, wiring, access, and assembly issues before launch.
Highlight 03
BEAVS And Payload Development
SCRT is developing advanced onboard systems, including active airbrakes for altitude targeting and a 3U CubeSat payload for imaging, communications, power management, and mission operations.
Subteams
Designed, Built, And Tested By Students
Each SCRT subteam owns a major part of the rocket system while coordinating across the full vehicle. Students gain experience with analysis, manufacturing, integration, safety, testing, and launch operations.
Propulsion
The propulsion team supports the motor system that carries the rocket to the 10,000-foot target altitude. For the 2026 IREC vehicle, SCRT is flying a COTS Aerotech N3300 motor while continuing to build the infrastructure, testing process, and technical knowledge needed for future student-researched and developed propulsion systems.
The team’s work includes motor integration, thrust transfer, retention hardware, test infrastructure, safety procedures, and long-term SRAD development.
Avionics
The avionics team develops the onboard electronics that support safe flight, recovery, tracking, and video transmission. For the 2026 vehicle, the avionics system is organized around flight control and charge deployment, GPS tracking, and live video.
Each system uses its own power source and pad-safe interrupt approach to reduce failure overlap and make integration safer.
Structures
The structures team designs and manufactures the main physical architecture of the rocket. This includes the carbon fiber airframe, nosecone, bulkheads, couplers, internal mounting features, and integration hardware that allow every subsystem to fit together into one flight vehicle.
Structures works closely with every subteam to make sure the rocket can withstand launch loads, support recovery hardware, hold internal systems securely, and remain serviceable during integration.
Payload
The payload team is developing a 3U CubeSat payload for the Space Dynamics Laboratory Payload Challenge. The payload is designed to perform multi-wavelength Earth imaging for climate-related observations while demonstrating a modular CubeSat platform that could support future flight experiments.
The system includes an Electrical Power System, On-Board Computer, Communications board, and imaging payload. The structure uses an aluminum frame, modular mounting panels, internal printed components, and electronics designed around power management, communication, imaging, and system health monitoring.
Recovery
The recovery team designs the systems that bring the rocket safely back to the ground. SCRT uses a dual-deploy recovery system so the rocket can descend under controlled conditions and land within a recoverable distance from the launch site.
The system includes redundant charge wells at separation points, parachutes, shock cords, attachment hardware, and careful packing procedures to reduce the risk of tangling or section collision during descent.
Aerodynamics And BEAVS
The aerodynamics team designs and analyzes the external flight surfaces of the rocket, including custom composite fins. The team uses tools such as OpenRocket, RASAero, RocketPy, and CFD to refine the vehicle’s stability, drag, and predicted flight performance.
The fin team designs custom composite fins, then manufactures them in-house using composite layup methods. These fins are built to provide stable flight while withstanding the aerodynamic and structural loads experienced during launch.
Aerodynamics also develops BEAVS, the Blade Extending Apogee Variance System. BEAVS is SCRT’s active airbraking system. It uses deployable blades to increase drag after motor burnout and help guide the rocket closer to the 10,000-foot target altitude.
Ground Support Equipment
The ground support team develops the equipment used to operate the rocket safely from the ground. The system includes a user box operated by the launch team and a pad box located near the rocket.
These systems support remote launch operations, onboard avionics charging, launch status feedback, and communication between ground equipment and vehicle systems. The design focuses on safety, usability, field repairability, arming controls, launch safeguards, an LCD interface, audio status cues, modular electronics, cooling, and radio communication.