Getting Started with the American Rocketry Challenge
A complete beginner's guide to ARC — who can enter, how teams form, key dates, and what you need to build your first competition-ready rocket.
The American Rocketry Challenge (ARC) is the world's largest student rocket contest, open to teams of three to ten students in grades 7–12. Each year, teams must design, build, and fly a rocket that meets a specific altitude and duration target — no off-the-shelf kits allowed.
If your student has ever asked "how do real rocket engineers think?" ARC is the most direct answer available at the K-12 level.
What the competition actually involves
ARC is not a science fair. Teams do not present a poster — they fly a rocket. The contest brief (released each fall) specifies an exact target altitude and a flight duration window. A recent season used a 750-foot apogee target with a 43–46 second flight duration. Your rocket must carry a raw egg as payload and land it unbroken.
Every design decision — nose cone shape, fin geometry, motor selection, recovery system — flows from hitting those two numbers. That tradeoff is where the real engineering learning happens.
Who can participate
- Grades 7–12 (middle and high school)
- Teams of 3–10 students
- Each student may only be on one team per season
- Teams must be affiliated with a school, club, or educational organization
- An adult mentor (teacher, coach, parent) must supervise — they do not design or build
There is no experience prerequisite. Many successful ARC teams started with zero rocketry background.
Key dates in a typical ARC season
| Milestone | Typical timing |
|---|---|
| Contest brief released | September |
| Qualifying launch window | February – April |
| National finals | May (Washington, D.C. area) |
Your team needs to submit a qualifying flight score before nationals. Plan to have a flyable rocket by January and use February–March for test flights and refinement.
What skills matter most
ARC rewards iteration over inspiration. The teams that do well are not the ones with the cleverest first design — they are the ones who flew early, measured carefully, and adjusted systematically.
The core skills:
- Rocket simulation (OpenRocket is the standard tool; free to use)
- CAD and fabrication — students need to model, build, and revise real parts
- Weight tracking — a few grams can shift your altitude prediction enough to matter
- Recovery system reliability — chute sizing, packing, and deployment must be tested carefully
- Flight data review — reading an altimeter log to understand what actually happened vs. what you predicted
How SEALS Academy supports ARC teams
Our ARC coaching pathway is built around the same engineering loop that competition teams use: simulate, build, test, measure, adjust, repeat.
We work with teams at every stage — from choosing a motor class in October to reviewing post-flight data in March. Coaching is available individually or as a group cohort with other ARC teams.
Ready to start? See our ARC classes and coaching options →