Launching into the New Year! — Bulldog Rocketry

Good morning rocket enthusiasts! Below is our first Bulldog Rocketry newsletter. Read on for information about what we have accomplished so far this school year, and what is coming up.

Team Leadership

CEO: Rachel Cirillo | Major: Electrical Engineering Fall 2025

Chief Engineer: Andrew Ludwig | Major: Industrial Engineering Spring 2025

Chief Marketing and Finance Officer: Jenna Whiting | Major: Marketing and Graphic Design Spring 2026

Chief Operations Officer: Anna O’Brien | Major: Computer Science Spring 2026

Chief Technology Officer: Dagan Larson | Major: Computer Science Spring 2025

Safety Deputy: John Difuccia | Major: Mechanical Engineering Spring 2026

Team Mentor: David Fliger

Academic Advisor: Jose Carrillo

Motor Test

Our team successfully completed a static fire of our motor on November 2nd 2024. During a static fire, our team fires the motor we use for our competition rocket upside down in a field to gather essential thrust, pressure, and temperature data. This is a huge milestone in the process of getting ready for the International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) in which we will be competing this coming June. Many members of our team, the school, and the community came out to support our efforts, including the chancellor of the University of Minnesota Duluth, the PR team from the university, and local news station WDIO. We couldn’t be prouder of our team and the dedication everyone put in to make this day a success. You can read the news story that they wrote about us here: https://www.wdio.com/front-page/top-stories/blasting-off-with-bulldog-rocketry-at-their-motor-test-launch/

Level 1 Tripoli Certifications

This spring we were thrilled to sponsor and mentor 9 students in getting their Level 1 High-Power Rocketry Tripoli Certifications. Being Level 1 certified allows members to launch rockets using motors from the H to I impulse range, or up to 640 newton-seconds of total impulse. It is also the first step in getting more advanced certifications which allow for the buying and launching of higher powered rocket motors. Huge shout out to our members Bruce Johnson, Josh Dolan, Jena Geist, Mitchell Schotzko, Jen Meng, Jacob Davies, Nathaniel Solberg, and Mac House for making this achievement! For more information on the tripoli certification process check out this link: https://www.tripoli.org/Certification#:~:text=Tripoli%20maintains%20a%20multi-level,dues%20are%20up%20to%20date.

Overview Of Rocket Progress

Besides our motor test, our team has been diligently working on designing and building the rest of our rocket. Josh Dolan, our airframe lead along with his committee, has been conducting research and developing our Airframe systems, consisting of the Nose Cone, Body tubes, Couplers, and the Fin Can. The first milestone that was achieved was calculating the expected forces that our rocket would feel during flight. This is crucial because it is needed to calculate how much force our components can take before they fail. With this information, we can make sure we are building our components so they won't break under unexpected conditions.

Jacob Korkowski, the payload lead, has been working hard with his committee to design a functional payload and box. The payload is essentially a science project that we put in our rocket that has its own competition at IREC. This year they have been working on creating a way to measure how much liquid is in a sealed vessel during the rocket’s flight using electrical capacitance tomography. They have also just finished manufacturing a 3U cubesat box-meaning it has the dimensions of 10cm x 10cm x 30cm.

The rest of the committees have been hard at work as well. Recovery, led by Andrew Carland, has been working on researching parachute manufacturing techniques. Motor, led by Will Moe, made sure that the motor test was a success. Avionics , led by John Grell, researched different electronics that will be needed for our rocket. And Solid Sim led by Mitchell Schotzko, has been aiding all of the other engineering committees doing simulation work.

What’s Next

This next semester we will be hitting the ground running on manufacturing our competition rocket. We will also be planning all of the logistics that go into the IREC competition. Including travel, itinerary, and making sure all parts of the rocket arrive there safetly.

How To Donate:

If you would like to make a financial contribution to bring our team to IREC please follow the link below. Any amount helps! https://makingagift.umn.edu/give/fund.html?id=21681

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