What We Do

Terrapin Rockets is a student-run organization at the University of Maryland, comprised of cross-disciplined undergraduate and graduate students, whose members are united by a shared passion for rocketry. Our organization designs, builds, and launches high-powered rockets for competition. We began competing in smaller, local competitions, such as Battle of the Rockets with Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) solid motors. Over the last couple years we have grown more ambitious and competed in the Spaceport America Cup, the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering competition.

This year we will be returning to the Spaceport America Cup again, except with a newly designed rocket aimed at winning the 10,000 ft category. Additionally, we will be entering into the Payload Challenge with a unique scientific payload. In addition to our competition rocket, the team focuses on teaching rocketry fundamentals to younger students in hopes of inspiring people to pursue rocketry in the future. As if that wasn’t enough, the Terrapin Rocket Team has been progressively developing a hybrid motor. This motor is intended to replace future COTS rocket designs as well as challenge the team with new goals. Since scoring is based on not only rocket performance, but engineering practices as well as innovation, we are working on several research projects to improve our design.