The Lehigh University Rocketry Association (LURA) recently completed a successful Level 2 high-powered rocket (HPR) certification with its custom-designed rocket “Chiquita.”
At 6 feet tall and 4 inches in diameter, Chiquita is the club’s most advanced project yet, says Keegan Gagnon ’25, a founding member of LURA, which is officially recognized by the National Association of Rocketry. The rocket features redundant avionics systems, parachute deployment mechanisms, and an unexpected experimental payload: a real banana.
“We actually got the idea from SpaceX,” says Gagnon. “They tested their payload system with a banana. We thought, Why not do the same?”
The banana wasn't just for fun. According to Gagnon, placing it in the rocket’s nose cone raised the center of gravity, improving flight stability. The launch reached a maximum altitude of 3,044 feet, a top velocity of 645 feet per second, and a total flight time of 667 seconds, deploying a drogue parachute at apogee and a main parachute closer to the ground.
After the launch, “there was a slight crack in the banana,” Gagnon quips, “but we peeled it and shared a bite.”
Club members gain hands-on experience with fiberglass fabrication, 3D printing, laser cutting, and technical skills in SolidWorks, ANSYS, and OpenRocket for aerodynamic and stress simulations.
New members are encouraged to achieve Level 1 rocket certification by designing and launching their own rockets. “We walk them through every step—design, build, and launch,” says Gagnon. “It’s how we make sure our members are ready for more advanced missions.”
LURA’s next project is a rocket designed to reach 10,000 feet at Mach 1—the speed of sound. The team plans to launch this new design, Dark Star, soon as a trial run for a major milestone: competing at the Spaceport America Cup, an international rocketry competition hosted in New Mexico.
“We want to put Lehigh Rocketry on the map,” says Gagnon. “We’re going for first place.”
Founded in 2022, LURA is advised by Terry Hart, a mechanical engineering professor and a former NASA astronaut. It has quickly grown into a thriving, nationally recognized group with a clear mission: to make Lehigh a serious name in collegiate rocketry.
“I knew it could work—other schools were doing it,” Gagnon says. “We just had to find a way to make it sustainable.”
That “way” included securing official recognition from the National Association of Rocketry, which provided insurance and legitimized the group’s launch operations.
Today, LURA is student-led and fully equipped to design, build, and launch high-powered rockets, says Gagnon, with dedicated lab space and growing member base.
—Safwan Hoque ’26 is a student writer for the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science