CRAFTSBURY – The countdown has begun for the newly formed Craftsbury Comets Rocketry Club, which recently announced it is the recipient of a $1,000 Northrop Grumman Foundation STEM Innovation Grant through the American Rocketry Challenge (ARC). The grant will fund materials and tools needed for students to design, build and launch a competition-ready rocket this spring.
The Northrop Grumman Foundation STEM Innovation Grant Program supports first-time teams from designated Title I schools competing in the American Rocketry Challenge. In addition to $1,000 in funding, the grant includes a starter kit with competition guidance, supply resources, safety information and the 2026 rules, as well as mentorship from professionals affiliated with the National Association of Rocketry and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
The Craftsbury Comets meet Mondays from 5 to 6 p.m., and the club is open to interested students. Those wishing to join may contact club advisor, Ben Luce.
Luce brings experience in physics and research to the program. He holds a Ph.D. in physics and spent 14 years as a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he conducted research in nonlinear dynamics and oversaw renewable energy research. He served as a professor of physics at what is now Vermont State University for 15 years, teaching courses in physics, acoustics, electricity and electronics, and renewable energy.
In addition to Luce’s leadership, the club is being supported by mentor Ken Matzner, who is consulting with the team as they design, build and test their rocket. Matzner’s guidance provides students with additional technical insight as they prepare for competition.
“The Rocketry Club is a great vehicle (pun intended!) for the students to explore a wide variety of aerospace engineering and science questions, develop their skills with tools like 3D modeling and flight simulation tools, and have a lot of fun in the process,” said Luce. “The grant was needed to enable the club to purchase many different materials to assemble the rocket, as well as a flight simulation program. We’re grateful for the support!”
Eleventh grader Raz Mille, who has been interested in space and engineering since childhood, described the club’s beginnings with humor and enthusiasm. “The rocketry club started with the question: ‘How can we blow stuff up and get school approval for it?’ What started as a small group of people who wanted to blow things up turned into a larger group of kids genuinely interested in how to create rockets.
As a group, we started researching the national rocketry challenge and decided that we wanted to create a functional rocket and compete in the challenge. We are now on our way towards our first real rocket launch and are very excited to see where things go next.”
Reilly Gerhard looks forward to building engineering skills through the club. “I enjoy the science and engineering aspect of the club, even though we haven’t fully reached that stage yet.”
The team is preparing to meet the 2026 American Rocketry Challenge requirements, designing a rocket that carries one raw Grade A Large egg (55 to 63 grams) in any orientation to 750 feet and returning it safely to Earth uncracked within 36 to 39 seconds.
The team will continue meeting throughout the winter and spring as members finalize their design, conduct test launches, and prepare for official competition flights under the 2026 challenge guidelines.
