It is Rocket Science for the budding Engineers of Sinhgad Institutes.

A team of 16 budding engineers from Sinhgad Institutes is all geared up to set the skies ablaze with their first Rocket APJ at Albuquerque New Mexico to participate in the prestigious Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) conducted by Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) USA. The STES Rocketry Team was formed by a bright group of under grad rocket enthusiasts. The group of 16 comprises 15 boys and one girl Sanika Jeste who is a pre-final Mechanical Engineering student. Ninad Patil a leading member of the team says that working very hard even during evenings and weekends they could achieve their objective of building their first Rocket. Their hobby of rocketry fired their passion to compete in the world’s biggest rocketry competition. They expect a very stiff competition with some of the finest rockets and feel excited to compete with the top notch colleges of the world like MIT, Caltech and Stanford University who would surely be participating.

Rachana Navale-Ashtekar, Vice President Sinhgad Institutes, unveiled the Rocket APJ of team STES Rocketry, named as tribute to India’s missile man and former President Late Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Rocket APJ would compete in the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering competition SA Cup 2018 scheduled to be held at Las Cruces, NM Convention Centre and the Spaceport America Vertical Launch Area from 19th - 23rd June 2018.

STES Rocketry team is the only team from Maharashtra and one out of the only two teams representing India for this competition.

Congratulating the STES Rocketry Team Rachana Navale-Ashtekar said that this a moment of great pride for not only Sinhgad Institutes, but also for State of Maharashtra and the entire Country as APJ Rocket of STES can be said to represent India at this international competition. The hard work and ingenuity of the team is a clear reflection of the bright future of the students of Sinhgad Institutes in the global arena. These budding engineers are clearly the rocket scientists and leaders of the future. We wish them best of success and expect them to return home with the SA Cup 2018.

Commencing in 2017 ESRA’s Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) became the flagship activity of a new annual event called the Spaceport America Cup or SA Cup which has more than 100 teams participating from across the globe including the top notch Ivy League colleges. Rockets compete in two categories namely COTS and SRAD. COTS are rockets built on commercially available propellant solid, liquid or hybrid and SRAD is Student team Research and Design a custom propellant. Rockets are further classified to compete in 10000 feet or 30000 feet apogee and judged on flight accuracy. Stringent judging criteria include project concept, design, implementation, flight performance and successful recovery, payload innovation and functionality and professional conduct and use of procedures.

For the 2018 edition of the SA Cup Spaceport America Cup, STES Rocketry team of Sinhgad Institutes aims to compete in the 10,000 feet category with a COTS propellant. Technical details of Rocket APJ are Apogee 10,000 feet, Maximum Velocity 1120 Km/h, Maximum acceleration 100 m/s^2, Time to Apogee is 25 Seconds, Time of Flight is 3 minutes, Total weight of Rocket is 27 Kg and Length is 8 feet. Rocket APJ is powered by Aerotech M2500 Blue Thunder Motor.