The University of California-Irvine got a $1 million grant from Base 11, a nonprofit workforce development and entrepreneur accelerator in Costa Mesa focused on science, technology, engineering and math.
The gift will fund a “Moonshot Initiative” to start a rocketry program at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering.
UCI wants to be “the first academic institution to launch a liquid-fuel rocket into space,” a statement said.
Liquid fuel rocket science exists, and experimental versions date to the early 1920s, but UCI’s plan suggests it will be the first school to assemble a team of students to build and launch one.
The school said its goal is to finish the rocketry lab by the end of summer and launch a rocket within two years.
The first rocket will be designed to travel 25,000 feet and then modified to reach 50,000 feet. The ultimate goal is to reach about 328,000 feet.
—Deirdre Newman
