Posted on October 23, 2025 by Sean M. Wood
Mechanical engineering major, Grace Zimmer, working on a component of the rocket.
League of Legends, the online game where the League of Liquids senior design team took its name has no “final boss” to defeat to win the game.
But for collegiate rocket engineering, the final boss could be designing, building and launching a bi-propellant liquid-fueled rocket. It requires a deeper understanding of fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and control systems on top of aerodynamics and mechanical engineering. That’s the challenge before senior mechanical engineering majors Grace Zimmer, Haven Russell, Emilio Mayorga and Tanner Ford.
The group is scheduled to launch their rocket, Jinx, powered by the liquid-fueled engine, Miss Fortune, in California’s Mojave Desert on Nov. 9. They have already completed two successful tests of their engine — designed and manufactured by the students themselves entirely in the Klesse Makerspace — to ensure it is generating enough thrust to take the rocket into the air. They expect to test the engine and rocket together after one more successful test of the engine.
“Right from the beginning, we said as a team we wanted three hot fires of the engine that went mostly well before we committed to integration into the flight vehicle,” Russell said.
The students are after much more than a grade for their final project. They are developing the design and troubleshooting skills and experience that will hopefully land them jobs in the space industry when they graduate in December. But this project is intended to extend beyond this semester.
Their advisor, Associate Professor Daniel I. Pineda , said he tasked students with coming up with an accessible design that can be relatively accessible and easily accomplished by college students in a typical campus machine shop.
“It’s just enough complexity to give them a level of experience that industry desires and seeks in future employees but just enough in scope for students to build and test in a single academic year,” Pineda said. “But also, with this approach, if something doesn’t work, the tests and hardware are not that expensive relative to a bigger multiyear project. It’s striking a balance with design and employers can see they have what it takes to design systems that go on their rockets and for their satellites.”
Russell had just returned from a job interview with Relativity Space in Long Beach, Calif. where team members told him nearly everyone had experience working on college rocket projects. “As Dr. P. said, having that experience is genuinely something they are looking for,” Russell said.
The work is being fully funded by Pineda who jokingly called it “Dr. Pineda’s Scholarship for Wayward Rocket Students.”
“It’s an investment,” he said. “I’m the adviser for the rocket club and these students have been active participants and team players in the club for years. They have also taken multiple courses with me and so I know their technical strengths and capabilities. You need great project management and engineering skills to pull this off. I consider this like a seed grant and once we build up momentum and get the word out there that we’re doing this at UT San Antonio we’ll get more corporate sponsorships that can support this long term.”
Many university rocket teams use solid propellant engines for their reduced complexity, for their superior ability to achieve high velocities and altitudes at the university-scale, and because there are commercial options available, although some groups mix their own solid propellant. UT San Antonio’s Aeronautics and Rocket Club (ARC) has done this before and will continue to design and build solid-propellant rockets for future competitions. Liquid propellant engines, by contrast, must be entirely custom-made. League of Liquids is making their components in the Klesse Makerspace, in part to make history, according to Zimmer.
“We want to be the first university group in Texas to launch a liquid-propellant rocket that’s student-built,” Zimmer said.
Other Texas schools have built liquid-fueled engines and had successful test-fires, according to Pineda, but he’s not aware of any university-affiliated projects that have had successful launches. He said some groups have launched hybrid rockets with liquid oxidizers and solid fuel.
“That’s not quite what we’re doing,” Pineda said. “The bi-propellant liquid architecture is most closely related to what’s used in launch vehicles in the industry, and reusable launch vehicle development is one of the biggest drivers of growth for these companies, especially those in Texas. So, we’d like to be the first group in Texas. But I don’t think a lot of people know that we’re in this race. We’re kind of like the dark horse.”
- Sean Wood
Story Update
By: Daniel Pineda
On Sunday, November 9 in the Mojave Desert, our senior design team, UTSA - League of Liquids Propulsion, launched and recovered their student-designed-and-built bi-propellant liquid rocket, making UT San Antonio the FIRST SCHOOL IN TEXAS to join the relatively short list of universities nationwide that have successfully launched liquid propellant rockets. The fill, launch, flight, and recovery were all executed flawlessly—a testament to the team’s design, manufacturing, preparation, and component-level testing leading up to the launch date. Together, they are providing a springboard upon which UT San Antonio students will build and continue to grow our Aerospace Engineering program. Make sure to find Grace, Haven, Emilio, and Tanner on November 25 at this year’s Fall Tech Symposium if you want to see their project and hear more about the historical significance of their efforts for university-based rocket engineering and aerospace workforce development in Texas.
Throughout the year, the team was supported by several fellow Roadrunners for technical, moral, and logistical support during testing and launch. Thanks to Kevin Eisenbarger, Scott Bourquin, David Gonzales II, Krystal Corral Martinez, and Fathme Del Castillo. Moreover, we are grateful to our UT San Antonio faculty including Dr. Keith Axler, Dr Don Petersen, Mr. Dave Kuenstler, and the UT San Antonio Makerspace and the Aeronautics and Rocket Club - UTSA for access to the tools, machines, and fabrication guidance to make this happen.
Lastly, I want to especially thank Joe Hernandez-McCloskey for going above and beyond as a mentor for this group, who shared his wealth of experience in mechanical design, rocket engine testing, and fluid flow analysis to supply critical feedback and resources to the team, especially in the early stages of rapid design iteration, injector manufacturing, and when the team had to explore alternative ignition strategies for their engine. This level of mentorship—including tutorials on computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis—is by no means required of any graduate student, but Joe's passion for helping others around him and elevating UT San Antonio has long driven his commitment to excellence in everything he does. He is most certainly worthy of the NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Fellowship that has supported his Ph.D. research, and I am glad that his potential as a future leader has been recognized by our nation's premier space agency.
For me, this project represents one more step in the development of our future aerospace engineers. We are building something bold, inspiring, and transformative. Together with our NASA Student Launch team, UTSA ARC's participation in the International Rocket Engineering Competition, and high school summer camps with rockets, 2025 has been quite a year for rockets at UT San Antonio—but we're not done. We're just getting started.
— Sean M. Wood
