
Carthage hosts 14th annual high-power rocket competition
23 rockets took to the sky during Carthage’s 14th annual First Nations Launch (FNL) on April 28-29.
FNL is the largest high-powered rocket competition in the country for Native American college students, designed as a ‘first step’ experience for students interested in rocketry, engineering, and space science.
Carthage students Iris Toney ’25 (Chocktaw, team lead), Alexander Kovalenko ’25, Kevin Totts ’25 and Nico Kilbourne ’25, along with faculty advisor Julie Dahlstrom, participated in this year’s Gateway Challenge. Teams designed and constructed a dual-deploy high-power rocket from a list of possible kit combinations.
“I was excited about this competition as a way to interact with the wider community of Native Americans while learning more about engineering and science through the process of building and presenting our high-power rocket,” said Iris Toney ’25. “I was also excited for the opportunity to meet and interact with professionals in the fields that interest me most, such as representatives from NASA, Blue Origin, and Sierra Space.”
Other competitions included the Moon Challenge, in which teams design, test, and fabricate some structural design components of a lightweight rocket, and the Mars Engineering Challenge, in which teams create the entire rocket from raw materials.
All the competitors, a total of 21 teams from 11 states and one Canadian province, converged for a weekend of workshops and presentations at Carthage. The rocket showcase took place at the Richard Bong State Recreation Area in Kansasville, Wisconsin.
Alumni of the FNL program, who are now employed at companies such as Blue Origin, the Boeing Company, and Raytheon Technologies, also joined the event as industry experts.
The competition culminated with a banquet featuring keynote speaker Captain Haida StarEagle (U.S. Space Force) and award presentations.
This was the first year a Carthage team participated in the FNL program. Students and faculty are excited to expand the team for next year and to create more opportunities for Native Americans at the College. “Our next task is to fully establish and maintain a vibrant AISES chapter at Carthage,” said Prof. Dahlstrom. “We are in the early stages now, but there is more work to be done.”