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Orbital Launch Vehicle Team

OLVT is an amateur rocketry design team that has a long term goal of placing a 5 kg payload into low earth orbit (LEO).

Orbital Launch team members put a rocket on a launch pad.

What is OLVT?

OLVT is comprised of over 70 students, specializing in avionics, structural design, electronics, propulsion, launch operations, trajectory analysis, research and development and business. In the past few years, our team has designed, built, and launched several rockets in Virginia, Maryland, Nevada, California and Kansas. Our most recent success this month was Skipper 1, a single-stage sub scale solid motor test rocket . The rocket reached an altitude of 3,042 ft and a maximum velocity of 130 m/s. Currently, we are continuing our next iteration of our Skipper 1 project to improve upon our in-house manufacturing techniques.

Orbital Launch team photo in a field with a rocket on a table in front of them.
Orbital Launch team assemble the rocket in a workshop space.
Orbital Launch team members put a rocket on a launch pad.
Orbital Launch team member working on a rocket outside.

Who can join? 

All undergraduate students are welcome to apply to join any of our subteams. We hold rigorous recruitment cycles during the fall semester of every year. Interested applicants can visit olvt.org for more information.

Fast Facts

Team size: About 70 members
Department Afiliation: Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
Workshop: Advanced Engineering Design Lab

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