History
KPL began when a small group of Michigan Tech students came together around a shared interest in making spaceflight more affordable. With no established liquid-propulsion program in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the team saw an opportunity to build that capability at Michigan Tech.
What began as a group of friends with an ambitious idea has grown into a team of more than 30 students working across eight projects, all focused on expanding Michigan Tech’s capabilities in liquid propulsion and propulsive landing systems.
Our Goal
KPL’s primary goal is to advance rapid rocket reusability at the collegiate level by developing reliable propulsive landing systems. The team is pursuing this through the Collegiate Propulsive Lander Challenge, while developing the engines, controls, test platforms, and supporting technologies needed to make student-built liquid-propellant landers possible.
The team also aims to develop increasingly capable liquid rockets, participate in collegiate launch challenges, and build relationships with industry partners. Long term, KPL hopes to apply its growing experience in propulsion and control systems to help industry partners test hardware, develop new systems, and solve real-world engineering problems.
Latest Updates
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Autonomous Flight Control Development
During the fall semester of 2025, AERE’s Keweenaw Propulsion Lab (KPL) began developing an autonomous flight control system intended to support future flight testing and vehicle control research. The project focuses on creating a system capable of controlling a test vehicle during both hovering and short vertical flights, commonly referred to as hops. The initial…
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Rocket-1: Development and Manufacturing
During the summer semester of 2025, AERE’s Keweenaw Propulsion Lab (KPL) began work on Rocket-1, a project focused on developing and manufacturing a rocket engine and its associated ground support equipment. Using the Mojave Sphinx guidebook as a reference, the team began manufacturing and assembling components for the rocket and its supporting systems. This work…