Central Piedmont Research Team Launches Satellite In Aerospace Competition
A Central Piedmont student research team returned to a statewide aerospace competition this spring and sent its work more than 50,000 feet above North Carolina.
The big picture
- An interdisciplinary team of eight students competed in the North Carolina High-Altitude Balloon Competition after nearly a decade away from the event.
- The launch showcased hands-on STEM learning and real-world research experience.
By the numbers
- More than 450 combined student work hours over five months
- About 53,000 feet reached during flight
- Two student-designed experiments conducted in near-space conditions
What happened
- Led by faculty Nick Davros, Amber Griffin and Garrett Nelson, the CPC3 Stratopack undergraduate research team designed, built and launched a cube satellite about the size of a Rubik’s Cube.
- The balloon carried cameras, microcontrollers and tracking systems along with student experiments focused on:
- Cold-welding
- Tensile strength, which measures how much stress a material can withstand before breaking
- After a successful test launch at Central Campus, the team competed on Thursday, Mar. 27 and Friday, Mar. 28 at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory.
The recovery
- Students tracked the balloon in real time after launch.
- The flight ended unexpectedly near a rural property in Rockwell, North Carolina.
- With permission from the homeowners, the team recovered the equipment near a donkey pen, highlighting the unpredictable nature of real-world research.
What’s next
- The competition continues with the Post Launch Assessment Review, the final phase that evaluates:
- Design reviews
- Flight readiness checks
- Team documentation
- Outreach efforts
- The team has already supported campus engagement through STEM Day and will continue outreach through spring 2026.