“I’m moving to Boston in three weeks!” At my high school graduation, I had just learned that I had been accepted into the Interphase EDGE program. This is a great opportunity to get accustomed to life at MIT before the 2022 academic year begins.
I was glad to have the opportunity, as I was facing a big change from my home life in Claremore, on the Cherokee Nation Reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. I have only traveled alone once, on a 5th grade trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, where I first fell in love with aerospace engineering.
It didn’t take long for me to find a community on campus. To my surprise, three graduate students and one undergraduate student were from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics among the dozen or so students who attended the Indigenous community welcome event. As a prospective Course 16 major and FIRST Robotics alumnus, I learned that they were planning to launch a new team for the First Nations Launch (FNL) Rocket Competition, the NASA Artemis Student Challenge. I was so excited. It was the perfect opportunity to combine my technical passion with my cultural roots.
That first year, many people questioned the need for our team. “MIT already has a rocket team,” they would say. However, while most build teams are defined by the specific projects they work on, the product is only one aspect of the experience.
Yes, I learned how to design, build, launch, and safely retrieve a model rocket. But by doing it alongside other Indigenous engineers on a team called MIT Doya (ᏙᏯ, Beaver Cherokee), I learned more than just engineering skills. Not only did I learn how to work with composites and design fins, but I also learned how to conduct classes and connect with professors. I learned about graduate school. And I learned how to celebrate my Indigenous identity and honor my ancestors through my work. For example, we often hold smudging ceremonies at team meetings and competitions where we burn sage to cleanse ourselves and our rockets.
Our team values universal technical agreement and buy-in, and we care about the success of each team member on an individual level. We call this in Cherokee gadugi (ᎦᏚᎩ), or “helping each other out.”
I also learned that embracing my culture provides a better approach to engineering challenges. While many engineering environments encourage top-down decision-making, our team emphasizes universal technical agreement and buy-in by testing and incorporating as many ideas as possible to involve everyone. However, we pay attention to each team member’s success on a personal level. level. We call this in Cherokee gadugi (ᎦᏚᎩ), or “helping each other out.” We found that this led to better technical results and a better experience for everyone on the team.
I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work closely with other Indigenous students on engineering projects that we all care deeply about. I respected the senior members of the team and saw in them a testament to what Indigenous students at MIT are capable of and what they can accomplish. And I love mentoring new members and passing on what I’ve learned to help them excel.
During launch weekend, our community will expand further and you’ll have the opportunity to work alongside inspiring Indigenous engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Blue Origin. I met my heroes and learned that it is possible to succeed in aerospace engineering as a Native American. In fact, my FNL experience has already helped me secure a great internship. Last summer, exactly 10 years after I set my heart on aerospace engineering at Space Camp, I returned to Huntsville as a lunar payload intern on Blue Origin’s Mark I Lunar Module.
Through the FNL team, I have greatly improved my technical skills. As our system and simulations progressed through the first year, I integrated all components of the physical design into a consistent computer model with both geometric and mass distribution accuracy. From that model, you can perform simulated flights, adjusting different launch conditions and trying out different motors. This analysis drives the overall design because small changes on the ground can result in large changes in the final altitude, which must fall within a certain range.
Our challenge in the first year was to recreate the kit rocket design while reducing weight by manufacturing all the parts ourselves, primarily using handmade carbon fiber and fiberglass. We finished second and were named Rookie Team of the Year.
In 2023-2024, our challenge was to build a rocket large enough to carry a deployable drone, and we ended up building a 7.5-inch diameter vehicle. Additionally, the drone chassis had to be designed and manufactured to meet stringent specifications. The drone fit inside the rocket on the launch pad, deployed at apogee (ours was at 2,136 feet altitude), had to deploy from a compact stowed state to 16 x 16 inches, and descend. Parachute down to an altitude of 500 feet, then release the parachute and maneuver to the landing pad. To meet FAA requirements, two team members studied and earned Part 107 remote pilot certifications, allowing them to operate drones.
This new challenge required us to design and build a drone at the same time as building a rocket, so we split into two sub-teams to work on both tasks in parallel. This approach required precise coordination between subteams to ensure everything was properly integrated for the final launch. As team captain, I managed this coordination while remaining involved on the technical side as head of systems and simulation and head of the aircraft. And as we move through project milestones from proposal to flight readiness review, we keep in mind that meeting this challenge requires both an operational drone and safe flight to the appropriate altitude. It was placed in
In April our team went to Kenosha, Wisconsin to test the rocket. We loaded up our parachutes and payloads, blessed them with medicine, and then launched our efforts into the sky. However, when I went to load the motor, the motor mount fell off in my hand. We immediately went to the range safety officer. Officials added an external motor retention device at the last minute and were able to recover the rocket and launch. After that brief (but almost catastrophic) delay, we launched safely and successfully recovered. And she won the Next Step Award, a $15,000 grant, on behalf of FNL at the Undergraduate Launch Initiative, a competition sponsored by NASA that is open to everyone. 2024-2025 season.
Six weeks later, when the overall contest winners were announced, we were thrilled to learn that we had won the grand prize. In addition to bragging rights, we won a VIP trip to Kennedy Space Center in August to walk the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building, explore the Shuttle Landing Zone, see Polaris Dawn on the launch pad, and watch Polaris Dawn from the beach. I was able to watch the Starlink launch. early morning hours.
This year, I am honored to once again serve as team captain and lead our expanded team as we take on new Student Launch Initiative challenges. I’m already looking forward to May when the rocket I’m about to complete will be launched. And we’re definitely going to smudge it before we fly, to honor our Indigenous heritage and send it into the air with goodwill.
Haley Polson ’26 is an aerospace engineering major, Cherokee Nation citizen, and captain of MIT’s Indigenous Launch Team.