American Rocketry Challenge 2026 and 2027
The NAR’s premier paying-forward student program, the American Rocketry Challenge, wrapped up its 24th and biggest year ever with a National Finals on May 16 at Great Meadow in Virginia. The 100 best of the 1,107 teams of 6th through 12th graders from 45 states that had entered ARC 2026 came to compete head-to-head for the program’s $100,000 in prizes. The weather was perfect, the flights were great, NASA Administrator (and two-time astronaut) Jared Isaacman attended and launched a rocket, and the crew of the International Space Station spoke to the students from space. You can see their video here.
The winner of ARC 2027 was a four-person team from The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, CA. You can read more about the team in this press release from the NAR’s partners in running ARC, the Aerospace Industries Association. Full contest results are posted on their website. The winning team was not able to travel to the Farnborough (London UK) International Air Show in July as the guests of one of ARC’s corporate sponsors, RTX (formerly Raytheon) so the second-place team, from Washington Youth Aerospace in Redmond, WA (who finished one point behind the winner) will go instead to compete there against the teams that won similar events in the UK, France, Japan, and the Ukraine for the title of International Champion.
ARC 2027, the program’s 25th year, will open registration in July. Registration deadline will be December 6, qualification flight deadline April 4, 2027, and the Finals will be May 15, 2027, at Great Meadow as always. The full rules will be published in July, but a summary of the rocket requirements is provided Here. The involvement of NAR members in recruiting and mentoring student teams is critical to the program’s objective of building the next generation of rocketeers and aerospace professionals. ARC has enrolled over 18,000 teams and 110,000 students over its history to date. Please help recruit teams in your area, support teams that want to fly with your section, and volunteer to be a mentor resource for teams by signing up here.
ARC 2026 Results
ARC 2027 Rules