HIGH-POWER TEAM
2024-2025 Team
This team will be the eighth team to participate in the Spaceport America Cup in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They will be competing in the 30,000ft Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Category.
Team Members
Team Lead - Barry Creighton
Systems Team Lead - Tyson Butterfield
Structures Team Lead - Haylee Sevy
Structures Engineers - Max Coverston, Brian Bodily
GNC Team Lead - Bryant Neuvert
GNC Engineers - Matt Taylor, Sam Bridge
Payload Team Lead - Caleb Fears
Payload Engineers - Andrew McDonald, TJ Neyman
Overview
The High Power Team (HPT) is BYU Rocketry’s IREC competition team and represents the end of the association’s timeline for students. The HPT provides students experience with high power rockets and aerospace industry practices through hands-on design and manufacturing. The HPT also exposes members to major aerospace companies at the SA Cup and brings notoriety to the club, helping encourage more students to participate in BYU Rocketry.
Team Structure
- Team Lead (1)
- Responsible for leading team to meet project vision and goals
- Receives recommendations and requirements from club presidency, SA Cup
- Organizes team and directs work
- Helps coordinate design decisions affecting multiple sub teams
- Structures Sub-Team (3)
- Structures Lead (1)
- Structures Support Engineers (2)
- Tasked with the physical structure of the rocket
- Guidance, Navigation, Control (GNC) Sub-Team (3)
- GNC Lead (1)
- GNC Support Engineers (2)
- Tasked with data collection and recovery systems of rocket
- Payload Team (3)
- Payload Lead (1)
- Payload Support Engineers (2)
- Tasked with designing and constructing the payload of the rocket
For more detailed information and documentation for this team please refer to the MEPS handbook section for High-Power Team
If you'd like to apply to the team:
Applications open early August each year.
2024 - "Alta"
Awards
- 5th Place Overall out of 144 teams
- 2nd Place: 10k Commercial Off-the-shelf Category
- 1st Place: Payload Challenge
- Best Team Video Award
Team Members
(Left to right)
Casey Gooch (Payload Team Lead), Barry Creighton (Structures Engineer), Gabe Slade (GNC Engineer), Scott Tuley (Club President), Zach Lyman (GNC Engineer), Taylor Anderton (Payload Engineer), Joshua Taylor (Structures Team Lead), Tyson Butterfield (Systems Engineer), Nathan Butler (Team Lead), Aidan Rice (GNC Team Lead), Spencer Stowell (Payload Engineer), Haylee Sevy (Structures Engineer)
2023 - "Solitude"
Awards
- Charles Hoult Award for Modeling and Simulation
- 1st Place: 10k Commercial Off-the-shelf Category
- Overall Winner of the 2023 Spaceport America Cup
The first team to win the Spaceport America Cup. The team's rocket, Solitude flew a textbook flight, reaching an apogee of 9,938ft. This was only 62ft from the target altitude of 10,000ft! Solitude carried a thermal radiation payload, which was ejected radially from the rocket at 5,000ft during descent and recovered independently to measure the Nightsky Radiative Cooling effect at different altitudes. The rocket had a test flight at Tripoli Idaho reaching 9,832ft with a successful recovery of both the rocket and the payload.
The team was recognized for multiple awards for flying so close to the target altitude and demonstrating excellence in design quality, build quality, and technical communication. The team was also recognized for technical achievement simulating and measuring the fin flutter resonance of their custom carbon fiber fins.
Team Members
(Left to right)
Dr. David Fullwood (Faculty Advisor), William Hart (Payload Lead), Alexander Potter (GNC), Anya Jeppson (Structures Lead), Dallan Trentman (Payload), Derrick Walker (Team Lead), Blake Jenson (Structures), Brad Hornfischer (Payload), Scott Tuley (Club President), Nathan Butler (Structures), Aidan Rice (GNC Lead), Riley Brown (Systems), Joshua Taylor (GNC, not pictured)
2022 - "MAVERICK"
AWARDS
Placed 31st over, ranked 18th Place out of 46 in the 10K COTS Category, and received 2nd Place for the Barrowman Award and Sportsmanship Award.
The first team to participate in the Spaceport America Cup in two years. The team's rocket, Maverick flew a textbook flight, reaching an apogee of 10,432ft. Despite being over the competition's goal of 10,000ft, the actual flight was very close to the simulated apogee of 10,470ft. Maverick carried an anti-sloshing payload, featuring a machining-learning module to prevent sloshing in a water tank within the payload. The rocket had a test flight at Tripoli Idaho reaching 10,676ft with a successful recovery.
The team was awarded runner-up for the Sportsmanship Award at Spaceport America Cup.
Team Members
(Left to right)
Blake Jensen (GNC), Brayden Smith (Payload Lead), Cayden Boll (GNC), Derrick Walker (GNC Lead), Riley Brown (Structures), Scott Tuley (Structures Lead), Brennen Dover (Structures)
Team Lead: Matthew Fisher
2021 - "Sundance"
Sundance featured a reaction wheel control payload that was intended for competition in the SDL payload challenge in the SA Cup. The rocket also was intended to house the first rocketry BYU Capstone project, an air brake system.
Team Members
(Left to right)
Mark Sweeney, Ryan Thibaudeau, Josh Ross, Adam Dunford, Natasha Wilson, Ryan Merrell, Alexa Lindberg
(Not in photo)
Alex Jordan, Harris Rothaermel
2019 - "Photon"
"Photon" flew to 9000 feet where it (intentionally) ejected its payload. However, during the payload ejection, the ejection blast released the drogue and main chutes. The bulkhead attached to the nosecone was torn off, rendering the nosecone unrecoverable. The payload was recovered successfully and received an honorable mention from the judges of the ESRA competition.
Fun fact about "Photon": The picture above features Zachary Lawless carrying Photon and is used as the default image all across the BYU Rocketry website!
Team Members
Bradley Buttars (Team Lead), Mark Johnson (Structures Engineer), Zachary Lawless (Structures Engineer), Joseph Andrew (Structures Engineer), Harris Rothemael (Payload Engineer), Mark Sweeney (Payload Engineer), Jodi Smith (GNC Engineer)
2018 - "Wasatch I"
Team Members
Riley Meik, (Team Lead), Ryan Garrison (Structures Engineer), Bradley Buttars (Structures Engineer), Alex Laraway (Structure Engineer), Riley Creer (Payload Engineer), Mark Sweeney (Payload Engineer), Scott Harris (GNC Engineer), Josh Jordan (GNC Engineer)
2017 - "Kevin"
Team Members
Brett Coles, Seth Nielsen, Hayden Oliver, Riley Meik, Dewey Potts, Ryan Garrison, Bradley Buttars, Riley Creer, Scott Harris, Aaron Ruben, Matthew Robinson
2015
Team Members
Ryan Richie, Michael Farnsworth, Jonathan Steele, David Butterfield, Gary Ellingson, Andrew Orme
2013 - "Firefly"
2012
2011 - "Phoenix II"
Team Members
Kai Eto, Robb Hays, Jeff Kitchen, Manil Poudyal, Joel Shepherd, Sam Wood
2010 - "Phoenix"
Awards
- Second Place overall ESRA Competition
The airframe of "Phoenix" was entirely constructed of carbon fiber, a first for BYU Rocketry. The launch at ESRA was a success, "Phoenix" took second place overall at the competition, though the main chute did not deploy properly causing the nosecone to break into many pieces and one of the fins to break off.
Team Members
Matt Campbell, Robert Campbell, Chris Howald, Tommy Hyatt, Michael Jarvis, Victoria Lee, Kasey Pearce, Chad Pharo, Roger Smith, David Standring, Samikshya Subedi
2009 - "Cosmos"
"Cosmos" was one of the first High Power Rockets to compete at the ESRA competition from BYU. The majority of the construction was of pre-fabricated, fiberglass, or wood parts. A defective motor caused a CATO (CATastrOphic failure of the rocket motor) at the competition and resulted in the destruction of the rocket.
Team Members
Mike Jarvis (Project Lead), Chris Howald (Payload Lead), Rudy Wright (Construction Lead), Victoria Lee (Systems Lead), Katherine Finlayson (Secretary), Robert Campbell (Recovery), Benjamin Lewis (Recovery), Kasey Pearce (Electronics), Chad Pharo (Electronics), Alex Wilson (Electronics)
2008 - "Ares"
"Ares" was the first high power rocket built by a BYU team and brought to compete at the ESRA competition. An electrical failure caused some smoke to be generated at the launch pad and the launch was scrubbed.
1990's - "Unity IV"
"Unity IV" was a collaborative effort between Brigham Young University, Utah State University, University of Utah, and Weber State University founded in the early 1990's. "Unity IV" was not a single rocket, but rather a decades long effort with several successful launches, though they were often several years apart due to difficulty in coordination. The group disbanded in 2003 because each university had gained enough aerospace experience to build rockets independently. This group has paved the way for what the BYU Rocketry Association is today.