Ohio Northern University’s T.J. Smull College of Engineering has launched an exciting new competition team—the ONU Rocketry Club. With ambition as boundless as the sky itself, the club’s charter members are aiming high, becoming the first team in Ohio to compete for the Argonia Cup.
Initially, the idea of entering a competition in the club’s first year of existence seemed unlikely, even impossible, said Dr. Blake Hylton, associate professor of mechanical engineering and the club’s advisor.
“We just wanted to get the club up and running, and thought maybe in a couple of years we’d have a critical mass of students and enter a competition.”
But the driving force behind the club, first-year student Dominic Bleacher, set a strong foundation from the start. In collaboration with Hylton and Dr. Craig Murray, associate professor of mechanical engineering, he recruited members, wrote safe operating procedures, obtained necessary approvals, and assisted new members with designing, building, and launching small rockets to earn their Level 1 certifications.
Before winter break, the club’s 12 committed members had collectively set their sights on entering a rocket in the Argonia Cup, a collegiate competition tailored toward speed and altitude. They began engineering and building a two-stage, Mach 1 rocket, capable of reaching speeds of 700-plus mph and heights of 20,000-plus feet.
The end of March, the ONU Rocketry Club will travel to Kansas to participate in the 2025 Argonia Cup Collegiate Rocketry Competition—becoming the first university in Ohio to field a team in this competition.
A mechanical engineering major who’s been building rockets since age 14, Dominic says the thrill of the launch is addicting.
“It’s an amazing feeling to invest so much time and energy in building a rocket, and then see it launch. The excitement of that moment is what keeps you going on to the next big thing.”
Dominic’s interest in rockets was sparked by his dad, who bought him a rocket kit during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I built it, launched it, and thought ‘this is cool,’” he said. “So, I started researching where I could take this.”
By making connections with rocket hobbyists, Dominic learned that rockets are classified alphabetically by propulsion. In order to build and launch more powerful rockets—H class motors and up— it’s necessary to obtain the proper certification. Before coming to ONU, Dominic obtained his Level 1 and Level 2 certifications. He is working toward his Level 3—the highest possible.
At St. Charles Preparatory School in Bexley, Ohio, where Dominic attended high school, he was active in the robotics club, serving as president his senior year.
He wanted to attend an engineering college with an established rocketry club, but he fell in love with ONU’s welcoming campus.
“I ended up choosing ONU because of how supportive everyone is here. They really want you to succeed and they care about building relationships.”
Hylton and Murray knew about Dominic’s background in rocketry, and early in the fall semester they encouraged him to follow his passion and start a club at ONU.
Since aerospace engineering is the most popular concentration in the College of Engineering, Hylton had long contemplated the idea of forming a rocket competition team.
“In comes a new student who wants to do it and who has the necessary certification—it was a no brainer,” he said.
A grant from the Ohio Space Consortium provided the seed money to purchase supplies and equipment to get the club started.
It was Dominic’s idea that new members immediately begin working toward their Level 1 certification.
“It was good foresight on his part to start building that level of expertise in the group,” said Hylton.
As members gained experience with various build techniques and chemicals, they exchanged design ideas, fueling their excitement for constructing a large competition rocket.
They decided to aim for the Argonia Cup, selecting it over other competitions because of the fun factor— it emphasizes high speed and altitude over a purely technical competition.
The competition calls for teams to “design and launch a two-stage rocket containing any number of golf balls as a payload in the sustainer to the highest altitude possible. The sustainer must reach a minimum of 9,000’ AGL and not exceed 40,000’ AGL. Both stages of the rocket must recover safely and in re-flyable condition.”
The ONU team won’t be able to engage in a test launch before the competition, but team members are completing ground testing and launch simulations to increase their chance of success on the big day in Kansas.
“For a team to design and engineer a product, then go out there and present and compete, it’s just a level and depth of experience that you can’t get in the classroom,” said Hylton.
For first-year students and sophomores, competition teams like the ONU Rocketry Club can be “a refuge and reassurance that engineering is where they belong,” he added.
Dominic is eager to see how the team’s first rocket performs in the Argonia Cup.
“It’s exciting—and a little bit nerve-wracking—but we can’t wait.”