The Ultimate Solution to Midterm Stress: Blow Stuff Up

Midterms week is here, which means life for most Princeton students has just gotten significantly sadder. One campus group, however, knows how to remain above the gloom.Yesterday, while countless others were huddled in Firestone, members of The Princeton Rocketry Club were outside, enjoying the sun and launching projectiles 700 feet into the air over Sexton Field.“I was studying all day, but I think it’s important to set aside an hour or two to screw around with explosives,” said Mike Fuerst '18, gleefully.The Rocketry Club, new this year, was founded by a group of like-minded rocket enthusiasts. “We decided that there was a distinct lack of lighting things on fire and launching them into the air on this campus,” Fuerst said.This enthusiasm is warranted: rockets are awesome. And I would soon come to realize that they are a great distraction from encroaching deadlines and exams.The club had eight rockets to try out, three of which were designed and 3D printed by Isabel Cleff '18. "It’s chill because you design the rockets, than you get to build it yourself and test it here,” she said.And so I spent my Sunday afternoon, blissfully ignoring my work and watching rockets jet into the sky:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL-JzpfLJCMDiscussing the future of the club, Matt Romer '18 thinks monthly rocket launches are just the beginning. "Next month we'll be working on a rocket that's roughly five times the size of any of these," he said. "We eventually want to join a rocketry competition."Interested in becoming a member? "I think for anyone who's interested in getting hands-on and doing things outside of the classroom in aerospace, this is really the only place to be," Romer said.For higher quality videos their launches, check out the group's Facebook page.