Liquid Rocketry at Illinois

Liquid Rocketry at Illinois is a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign student organization developing toward a supersonic, pump-fed liquid-bipropellant rocket. Its Control Freak solid-propellant demonstrator tests active roll control using canards and a student flight computer. The first vehicle launched in Indiana in April 2026 but was lost after GPS and parachute-deployment problems. Students rebuilt it in eight weeks and placed 49th of 141 teams at the 2026 International Rocket Engineering Competition, demonstrating about one second of roll control and recovering the rocket. Technical groups also work on engines, pumps, internal structures and fluid systems.