Late Tuesday afternoon, we met with Launcher: A Brooklyn-based startup building rocket engines. Cool.

After a few months of back and forth e-mails with Max Haot, founder and CEO, we knew it was time for an in-person meet-up. After all, what they’re experimenting with is the stomach of our project!

President Nariman Farvardin arranged a meeting with Launcher — who very generously was able to give the time of Max and two engineers: Andre Ivankovic and Luis Alcalde. Launcher and Castle Point Rocketry met for 90 minutes to exchange design ideas, team pitfalls, and questions. Kishore Pochiraju, our lead faculty advisor, and President Farvardin attended as well.

I’m happy to say that I think we all learned a lot. Our relationship with Launcher is stronger than ever — and Stevens was able to found a relationship with them, too! Furthermore, Launcher has pledged the use of their test site for Castle Point Rocketry’s model engine test fires.

Launcher’s test facility is located in Calverton, NY, a nice hike out Long Island — though not nearly as far as the team would be driving without Launcher’s help.

We’re looking forward to a great wrap-up to this semester iterating on our injector and chamber designs, and we will be checking back in with Launcher periodically from here out!