2006 - 2007

Beginning of the Club

The club was founded (approximately 8-12 members). Competing for Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC), the club gained experience with designing and building rockets and parachutes from scratch. Unfortunately, we missed the qualifying score by 0.2 points.

2007 - 2008

TARC

Team of about 12 members applied the experience and knowledge gained; We qualified for TARC Finals and traveled to Manassas, VA. The Seattle Art Museum provided materials and training in packing rocket for cross-country travel. Our teams placed 29th out of the 100 qualifying teams at Finals.

2008 - 2009

Growth

Membership grew to 21 and fielded three teams: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. Experimentation in rocket design, materials and parachute design expanded. All three teams qualified for Finals, travel to Manassas, and placed 7th (Charlie), 24th (Bravo) and 58th (Alpha), securing the Club’s first NASA contract, via NASA's Student Launch (SL) program, to build a Sounding Rocket.

2009 - 2010

Four TARC Teams

Membership grew to field four Ingraham teams (Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo; Team Alpha was retired to the Hall of Fame) for TARC and one SL (NASA) team. SL Team Rainier experimented with new materials such as ‘blue tube’ and constructing fins from “scratch” using plywood, fiberglass and Kevlar-carbon fiber weave; and continued as the only team to design and make their own parachutes by hand, in a field of 37 University and high school team colleagues at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. The scientific payload was an on-board set of gyroscopes and measuring devices to measure the effect of counter-balancing x-y vectors on rocket stability. This year, the TARC criteria changed from using parachutes to streamers. The tradition of hand-made, sewn parachutes was put aside for the experimentation and data gathering with streamers for the new TARC criterion. All four teams qualified for Finals, and return with 4th- (Charlie), 10th- (Bravo), 26th- (Delta) and 58th- (Echo) place standings. This was the first time in TARC history that two teams from the same high school place in the top 10. NASA awarded two SL contracts to the Club.

2010 - 2011

Five TARC Teams

Five teams (Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot) are fielded for TARC, and two for SL (Team Olympus and Team Adams). Rocket motors from the supplier were discovered to be defective (on a “Recall” list, but no notification letters were received) after a rushed season of repeated failures in test launches at 60 Acres Park in Redmond. As a sad consequence, none of the TARC teams qualified for Finals. Teams Olympus and Adams designed two different SL rockets for NASA, with on-board experiments of measuring radioactivity at different altitudes on descent, and investigating crystallization of Field’s Metal under zero gravity (at apogee). Interim Reviews and Reports with NASA went well until Team Adams encountered an unexpected design consequence of instability as the rocket mass changed during flight. Adams’ “Flight Readiness Review” scrubbed the mission, but both teams traveled to Huntsville, AL, to launch Olympus in a flawless flight.

2011 - 2012

New Advisor

Five teams were fielded by Ingraham Rocket Club under new Advisor, Kurt Spann, and Mentors Carl Hamilton, Julian Picard (alumnus) and Patrick Ma (alumnus). One NASA SL contract was continued, with Team Cascade steadily meeting Review deadlines. After traveling to Huntsville, AL, Team Cascade successfully launched on April 22. Rockets designed and built by Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo and Foxtrot are ready for launch in March, in advance of the TARC April 2 deadline. Competing against nearly 700 teams nationwide, including 11 other teams from the state of Washington, two teams from Ingraham (Echo and Foxtrot) were included in the 100 TARC finalists selected to compete near Washington, D.C., on May 12. During competition on May 12, Team Foxtrot qualified for the finals, eventually placing 15th in the nation and ensuring a spot in NASA's 2013 SL challenge.

2013 - 2015

Continuing

New and returning rocketeers continued to learn, teach, and fly. In spring of 2015, Teams Delta and Foxtrot qualified for TARC National Flyoff. Team Foxtrot took 3rd in the nation, and Team Delta finished 21st (see below for more information ). As a result of the 3rd Place finish, the Club became one the handful of high school groups invited by NASA to submit a proposal for the 2016 Student Launch.

2014 - 2015

Team Foxtrot Takes Third Place at the 2015 TARC Nationals

Ingraham's Teams Foxtrot and Delta had an excellent showing at the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) in The Plains, VA, on Saturday, May 9, 2015. Team Foxtrot, after scoring a 1 in the first round, placed third in this national competition sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). TARC is the AIA's flagship program designed to encourage students to study and pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). After the first round in the competition, the two Ingraham High School Rocket Club teams were in 1st and 12th place, with scores of 1 and 17.32 (a 0 is a perfect score). Team Foxtrot was docked one point for missing the target altitude of 800 feet by 1 foot. In the final round, afternoon thermals and new flight criteria created challenges for both teams, and, in the end, Foxtrot finished in 3rd place and Team Delta placed 21st. For their feat, Foxtrot earned $12,500 in scholarships, a framed flag that orbited in NASA’s newest Orion spaceship, and $1,000 for the school.
Roughly 700 teams competed in TARC, with the top 100 in the nation attending the National finals. Ingraham has a strong history of success at TARC, sending 12 teams to the finals in the club’s 9-year history. After missing the finals the past 2 years, they’re excited to have sent the whole club to the finals this year. And with only 2 seniors graduating from the club – and the club’s best ever finish – they look forward to more success this coming year.
Qualification in the TARC Nationals is something to be very proud of. Delta and Foxtrot qualified for Nationals with launches that all came within 3 feet of the target altitude, and only one missed the target duration – by 1 second. At the National Flyoff on May 9 in The Plains, VA, Team Foxtrot placed #3 and Team Delta #21. Teams that place in the top 10 win scholarship money as well as $1,000 for the school, not to mention pyro-technical glory and bragging rights! The Ingraham teams were two of the only three high school teams from Washington State to qualify this year. Since the Club was founded in 2006, 12 Ingraham teams have qualified for TARC Nationals, and 4 of those teams placed in the top 10. In fact, in 2010, Team Charlie came in #4 in the nation, and Team Bravo came in 10th--the first time in the Competition's history that two teams from the same high school scored in the top 10.
As a result of Team Foxtrot's 3rd Place finish in 2015, the Ingraham students are one of eight high school teams invited to submit a proposal for the 2016 "Student Launch," a NASA-sponsored event in which college teams (as well as high-scoring TARC teams) design, build, and launch a high-power rocket, carrying a scientific payload, to an altitude of 5,280 feet and return in recoverable and reusable condition.
More recently, the club has participated in the Student Launch Initiative. This is a program which 9 high schools and a number of universities compete in that is sponsored by NASA. Ingraham's team Constance flew successfully at this on April 16, 2016.

2015 - 2016

New People

With 7 new members, the club roughly doubled in size. Three teams (Delta, Echo, and Sierra) were fielded for TARC and 9 members participate in the 2016 Student Launch. To read more about our 2016 Student Launch Project, click here. Unfortunately, none of our three teams qualified for TARC finals. However, our achievements at Student Launch were recognized by the Seattle Times.

2016 - 2017

Mr. Spann

Mr. Spann transferred his advisory position to Mr. Fisher. The club decided that Echo is a cursed name. Hence our three TARC teams were named Jupiter, Sierra, and India. 3 of our new members participated in Project Shuksan, which added up to 9 of us participating in the 2017 Student Launch.

2017 - 2018

Project Silver Star

This year while dealing with TARC, we've decided to start on a new high power rocket build. After many hours sanding and epoxying the airframe, the carbon fiber rocket known as Silver Star was complete. It was successful on a L-motor and reached around 12,000ft! In addition, the rocket achieved mach 1.7, faster than the speed of sound.

2018 - 2019

We don't talk about it

Internal issues resulted in the club falling apart, and while also being busy with SLI, Ingraham rocketry was unable to make TARC nationals.

2019 - 2020

Pandemic!

Progress this year had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It will be continuted onto next year.

2020 - 2021

TBD

This year, we continued the TARC competition from the previous year, working with the same rocket and specifications. While COVID prevented most in-person meetings, we still had some outdoors meetings to launch. We qualified for nationals, but due to the pandemic only were able to attend the TARC distributed nationals near us. There, we placed in the top 50 teams despite having one of our rockets crash, which forced us to combine our two teams.

2021 - 2022

Our return

Under the new Vice president, Iris Hochwalt, in charge of design, (who also orchestrated the switch to carbon fiber) Ingraham rocketry once again became a wannabe powerhouse. We had good scored flights, however, we didn't make it to TARC nationals due to paperwork issues. This year permanetly changed how we build our rockets and permanently reshaped the club.

2022 - 2023

ARC Powerhouse

This year put IHS rocketry back in the running for becoming an ARC powerhouse. Starting off the season with launching our high power project FrankinFin in Pasco, and three of our club officers getting Jr High Power level 1 certifications through NAR. While growing in numbers over the summer. Continuing with carbin fiber and extensive data tracking to dile in our rocket, but after nearly losing it to a river, we qualified for nationals with very low scored flights, however during the test flights before the competition, we crashed and rushed to rebuild our rocket before heading out to DC. Upon out return, we kicked off next years high power rocket, FrankinFin's Monster.

2023 - 2024

New Leadership

The year began with a new group of officers coming to power and half the club lost to graduation. Starting the year off launching the club high power project FrankinFin's Monster, a sequal to the previous year's HP project, and three of the new officers gaining Jr High Power level 1 certifications through NAR. Treasurer Mae, now incharge of data collection and rocket design continued the trend of extensive data collection. However, after a series of near perfect flights we yet again crashed and was forced to rebuild. Unlike TARC 2023, it was early in the season as opposed to right before. We concluded the season narrowly missing the cut off for TARC nationals. IHS Rocketry concluded the year beginning more L1 certification rockets and next year's high power project, Bride of FrankinFin.

2024 - 2025

TBD

Join us if you want to know whats next!