BYU Rocketry Club places first in International Spaceport America Cup
Jul 3, 2023, 7:00 PM
Aerials of the BYU campus, shot in Oct 1999. Photo by Mark Philbrick (Submission date: 09/02/2003)
(Submission date: 09/02/2003)
PROVO, Utah — The BYU Rocketry Club claimed first place in the International Spaceport America Cup in New Mexico.
Last summer was the first time the team went to the acclaimed contest. Among the 158 teams, nobody expected who’d come in first.
“Hearing … team seven from Brigham Young University called for the 10,000-foot commercial off the shelf category winner, and then the entire competition winner was, kind of, unreal,” BYU Rocketry Club team president Scott Tuely says. “We’re still in shock a few days later.”
Tuley says the achievement comes after months of trial and effort.
“We went down to New Mexico about a week ago and competed and performed about as best as we could, and then saw what happened,” he says.
BYU’s rocket came the closest to the 10,ooo-foot target before cleanly releasing its payload.
He has been nothing but proud ever since.
“We did this on top of our own course work and work off and on campus,” he says. “(I) just want to say thanks to the whole team.”
Tuley hopes incoming students can be just as successful.
