A student organization at Binghamton University is shooting to launch a rocket into space.

AeroBing is a student organization founded in 2019 that creates and tests rockets, along with taking care of all logistical matters behind rocketry. Jacob Goodman and Jeremy Gendler, third-year graduate students pursuing Ph.Ds. in mechanical engineering, founded the organization during their time as undergraduates at BU.

Currently, the group is composed of multiple members and sub-teams who are developing and testing trial rockets that will prepare them for their launch. The team will launch their sixth trial rocket — CAT-9, also known as “Kitty Hawk” — in March at the Mojave desert in California. If AeroBing is successful, BU will become the second college in the United States to launch a rocket into space.

According to Goodman, AeroBing was founded when Goodman proposed the idea of launching a rocket into space to Gendler when they were juniors at BU. Currently, Goodman stands as the project lead and Gendler as the chief engineer for the project. Now graduate students, Goodman and Gendler have been working on the project for over three years with help from the mechanical engineering department.

According to the team, the past trial rocket launches were for research purposes. They stated that they started with half-scale models — which are seven feet tall rockets — all launched in the Mojave desert as test trials for improving future rockets. Gendler explained the importance of these previous test rockets.

“There is always more to develop and fine tune,” Gendler said. “A lot of times your hard work ends up exploding or shattered in a matter of seconds. We learn something every time our rockets fail. After every launch, we write action reports with every last detail we can improve on for next time — how we can improve our rockets, how we can improve our management, logistics, down to even when we need to have caffeine.”

Goodman and Gendler said the AeroBing team is composed of sub-teams that include Avionics, Electronics, Simulation and the Build and Test team. Another sub-team, the Recovery Team, partnered with the mechanical engineering department to offer four seniors an opportunity to work on the rockets.

Juan Altamirano Hefferan, a member of the Avionics sub-team and a first-year graduate student majoring in electrical and computer engineering, described why he joined AeroBing.

“I joined because I’m passionate about space exploration,” Altamirano Hefferan said. “This project has been a great experience to get into the professional field. I was able to learn a lot and work with other like minded people.”

According to Gendler, students interested in the project do not need to come from an engineering background.

“We bring someone on the team because they’re committed and willing to learn,” Gendler said. “We don’t need engineers. BU didn’t have rocket science before us. We have the reading done, and we can shove it into anyone’s head.”

The funding for this project was mainly done by Goodman, who raised money through various sources. Goodman said that the group received two NASA opportunity grants as well as partial funding from BU. The remaining funds came from private contributions such as past employers of Goodman who were willing to invest in the group’s project.

Ali Merali, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering who frequents the engineering shop, described his experience with AeroBing.

“You walk into the shop and all you see is a bunch of teams,” Merali said. “You compare the veracity, and you’re always drawn to AeroBing. They have power and passion unlike any other team.”

The team hopes to launch their space rocket later this spring. The rocket is called “Ambition-3,” and it will become the next project in motion after the sixth trial rocket launch in March.

Gendler reflected on the progress made in this program, expressing pride in the teams work.

“Just over three years ago, there was no rocketry at BU,” Gendler said. “Now we have a team that’s fielding serious rockets. As an engineer, if you can build a rocket, you can build anything else.”