Student Research Symposium Program Portal: Submission #75

Abstract The SKY CHIEF project follows the guidelines of the 2025 USCLI NASA competition in designing, constructing, and testing both subscale and full-scale rockets for flight and recovery. The rocket will achieve an altitude between 3,500 and 5,500 feet while carrying a payload to transmit between three and eight critical data points. These include temperature at the landing site, apogee reached, battery status, onboard STEMnaut orientation, time of landing, maximum velocity, landing velocity, and calculated STEMnaut survivability. In addition to meeting these requirements, the project incorporates an independent objective of integrating a camera into the rocket to capture in-flight and landing footage. The project emphasizes precise flight performance, payload data transmission, and reliable recovery, aligning with NASA's engineering and safety standards to validate mission success.