Our Crowdfunding Groups
How You Can Help
We believe that the biggest step our generation can take to advance space exploration is to develop propulsive landing capabilities at a collegiate level. This project gives students the opportunity to gain design, manufacturing, testing, and project management experience that is directly applicable to systems under development by industry leaders such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Relativity, and STOKE. Donations will fund real engines, test stands, and component development that will allow us to take a hardware-heavy, hands-on approach to this learning. This is a unique opportunity for you to become an early investor in our team as we develop the next generation of aerospace professionals.
Donate today and help Texas Launch and Land bring propulsive landing to UT!
Who We Are
The Texas Launch and Land Project CERMIT is a collaboration between Aerospace Senior Design and the Texas Rocket Engineering Lab that was founded to initiate the pursuit of propulsive landing capability at the University of Texas at Austin. It is a prerequisite to the proliferation of space travel that rockets become reusable. Training college students to think through propulsive landing and the reusability challenge in a hands-on way prepares us to thrive in and advance the space industry upon graduation. Texas Launch and Land was founded by 7 senior design students, who have a combined 15 years of experience in the Texas Rocket Engineering Lab, across the propulsion, structures, and test teams. The founding members have interned in the industry at companies including SpaceX, Relativity Space, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. The team will grow in coming semesters to enable a larger, more diverse group of students to tackle the challenges of propulsive landing vehicle development.
What We’re Fundraising For
All donated funds will go towards hardware for the development of a vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL) rocket, CERMIT. CERMIT will participate in the Collegiate Propulsive Lander Challenge, a new collegiate rocketry challenge that provides cash rewards for teams whose rockets achieve milestones such as a throttled hotfire, demonstration of thrust vector control, a hover test, a drop landing, and an eventual full hop. CERMIT is currently baselined as a 500-lbf liquid bi-propellant rocket that is being designed to fly to an altitude of 50m, then land itself within 10m of its target. The project is projected to take 3-4 years.
For More Information
Feel free to reach out to us at texaslaunchandland@gmail.com!
Buys us various hardware and soft goods vital to our engine assembly, vehicle fluids system, and test stand development, such as fittings, bolts, lubricant and seals. We’re so grateful for your help!
This covers the cost of enough fuel for one full-duration burn, or the current cost of one of our temperature sensors. One of our members will send you a handwritten thank you letter with a brief update on the team’s progress.
$100 covers the cost of a pressure sensor for our static fire test stand, a low pressure valve for development testing, or about 20 feet of tube we will use to route our propellants to the engine. Once we get to a static fire, we’ll send you a photo of the test with a note from the team to show our appreciation!
Buys us one full set of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for use on our test and launch days. We will engrave your name into part of our payload or vehicle (wherever it fits best) and send photos of that hardware being integrated.
Our hero! This donation would cover the current estimated cost of our engine, all of our vehicle fluids components, OR majority of our test stand. We'll launch something of your choice onboard CERMIT once we've proven our technology, or we'll put your name on our vehicle and test stand and share it on social media.
