What is NASA SLI?

The NASA Student Launch Initiative (SLI) is a research-based project where middle school, high school, and college/university teams conduct a nine-month research project for NASA to gain professional experience as engineers.  Teams follow the typical NASA project timeline of proposal, milestone reports, project demonstrations/testing, and eventual presentation of final project and scientific conclusions drawn.  The project is part of NASA's own STEM Engagement plan as it is focused around providing students with valuable experience to conduct research that will one day benefit the Space Launch System (SLS) and Artemis Program, meant to take the United States back to the moon and eventually onto Mars.  

To participate in the NASA SLI Middle/High School Division, teams must be invited.  Our team was invited for the 2022 NASA SLI season after placing in the top 25 at the national finals of The American Rocketry Challenge (TARC) 2021.  The team was also given a Request For Proposal (RFP) by NASA, a request that is sent out to prospective teams in which NASA requests teams to submit a proposal for this given research project.  For the Middle/High School Division, NASA requests that teams develop a Level 2 High Power rocket that will also carry a scientific payload and will utilize the flight of the rocket to collect data and from there draw scientific conclusions.  Teams then have just about a month to submit their proposal to NASA.  If the proposal is awarded, then the teams may begin their project, with milestones such as the Preliminary Design Review (PDR), Critical Design Review (CDR), and Flight Readiness Review (FRR) occurring every month or so.  At each milestone, the team must submit a report as well as a presentation which they deliver to a panel of NASA scientists, engineers, and industry partners.  

However, building and flying rockets and a scientific payload isn't the only thing that defines NASA SLI.  Another huge part of this project is outreach.  NASA requires that we outreach to the community to engage them in STEM and space exploration.  From presentations, to social media presence, to other forms of engaging students and community members in our project, the STEM engagement aspect was also an integral part of our mission.  

The 2022 team successfully completed the NASA Student Launch Initiative project in May of 2022, after a successful launch of the main vehicle in Huntsville Alabama and Post-Launch Assessment Review Report.