Sixth in the nation
Team Fusion
Nationals 2026
- 6th place, 2026 American Rocketry Challenge National Finals
Teams
Every Newport rocket is designed, built and flown by a crew of 3 to 10 students. Crews compete in the American Rocketry Challenge, the world's largest student rocket contest.
2026–27 crews form in October. Team selection starts at the first meeting on Tuesday, October 6, in Room 3104.
Recent crews
Two trips to Nationals
Team Flight 0
Nationals 2024Nationals 2026
- 1st place, Northrop Grumman Foundation Mission Debriefing Challenge (2026)
- 12th place, 2026 National Finals
- National finalist, 2024 (as Flight Zero)
Back-to-back finalists
Team Meter
Nationals 2024Nationals 2025
- National finalist, 2024 and 2025
All-freshman crew
Team Order 66
Nationals 2025
- Top 25 at the 2025 National Finals
- First all-freshman team at Nationals since 2014
Hall of fame · 2022
Graveyard & Meeska Mooska
Newport's two 2022 finalist crews took first and second place at the National Finals. The champions then flew for the United States at the Farnborough International Airshow and finished second in the world.
Read the flight logFind your role
You don't need experience in any of them. Pick one to start, and you'll end up learning most of them by May.
Design & CAD
Shape the airframe, size the fins and lay out the payload bay before anything gets cut.
Simulation
Model every flight in OpenRocket to predict altitude, stability and flight time.
Motors
Choose the right motor class and assemble reloadable motors under adult supervision.
Recovery
Pick and pack the parachute that brings the rocket down slowly enough to save the eggs.
Build
Body tubes, boosters, fin cans and nose cones, glued, taped and sanded by hand.
Payload
Design a bay that keeps two raw eggs safe through the boost, the ejection and the landing.
Launch & safety
Run the checklist, follow the NAR Safety Code and log every flight for the next one.
Outreach
Teach younger students at STEM fairs and camps, and tell the team’s story online.
How a season works
- 01October
Crews form
Team selection at the first meetings. Crews of 3 to 10 students.
- 02Fall–Winter
Design, build, test
CAD and simulation in the week, test flights on weekends at 60 Acres Park.
- 03By Dec 6
Register
Each crew registers for the American Rocketry Challenge.
- 04By Apr 4
Qualify
Two or three scored flights in front of a NAR observer.
- 05May 15
Nationals
The top 100 teams in the country fly at Great Meadow, Virginia.