The Texas Rocket Engineering Lab (TREL) was established through a $1,000,000 commitment by Firefly Academy to UT. This commitment was made in order to help the students build the first student-built rocket to pass 100 km. The Base11 Space Challenge was announced soon after the commitment was made. The Base11 Space Challenge will award $1,000,000 to the first student team to launch a rocket to 100 km.
In addition to the financial commitment, Firefly Academy has also organized lectures, mentorship, and testing for TREL through its partnership with Firefly Aerospace. Firefly Aerospace employees lecture to TREL students regarding how to build a rocket. In addition, Firefly Academy is currently helping TREL sublease a portion of Firefly Aerospace’s test site. This lease will allow TREL students to safely test their hardware with Firefly Aerospace guidance.
Firefly Academy has provided 12 students 3-month internships with Firefly Aerospace (with most students coming from TREL). Firefly Academy hopes to expand its reach to other NewSpace companies to help place Firefly Academy participants as interns. If you would like to help us achieve this goal please contact us.
The FIRE event is an annual event run by Firefly Academy hosting a model rocket competition at Firefly Aerospace’s test facility. FIRE brings model rocket teams from around the world to Texas to build and launch these model rockets. Local school students are invited to raise interest and awareness of space.
FIRE 2019 was Firefly’s first competition. FIRE 2019 was held on DATES. FIRE 2019 included ___ participants from ___ countries, and ___ local students. The event was a great success with one several students expressing a newfound interest in space and a dream of working at Firefly Aerospace or SpaceX in the future.
Firefly Academy engages with students through various means to further STEM education. A few examples are: