In his long and illustrious career in engineering, Kelly was a pioneer who started the Autonomous Land Vehicle project at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1984 and is credited with creating the foundation of the technology base leading to today’s driverless cars. A man with many interests, Kelly has traveled extensively, photographing wildlife on every continent in the world and publishing a book of penguin photography.

Closer to home, Clint Kelly also is a decades-long member of the Speed School’s Industrial Board of Advisors. To the engineering school’s River City Rocketry team, he’s a different kind of hero.

It all started about 20 years ago when a mutual friend of Mickey Wilhelm, dean of Speed School at the time, suggested that Kelly might be interested in working with the school’s advisory board. At a board meeting in 2011, Speed School student Nick Greco, who founded the River City Rocketry Team (RCR), came into the meeting and put a rocket down on the table.

“My first thought was how I had built one myself many years ago,” Kelly said. “I was always interested in how things worked more at an intellectual level than a hands-on,” Kelly said. “But I had a good friend who was great at the hands-on, so he and I used to build rockets, and we had to build everything from scratch.”

Kelly suggested to the board that they support this rocket team, a student-led organization that allows students the opportunity to design high powered rockets and compete against other universities across the country. Though the other board members didn’t share his interest at that time, Kelly decided to get involved anyway, and he has never wavered since in his enthusiasm or support for the team.

Founder Greco said the RCR has come a long way since that day.

“The year I founded the rocket team at UofL, we had zero funding and we were building most of our rocket in my apartment kitchen,” said Greco, who now works as an aerospace engineer at Blue Origin. “Clint saw and supported our vision and was a huge reason why it’s grown into the polished group it’s become at the university today.”

“They have a lot of great ideas and I’m continually impressed by them,” Kelly said of RCR. “What they learned by building these rockets and then competing in competitions were practical things. How to do the equations, and then how to translate the equations into hardware and address all the problems you have when you do that. They relate the calculations to what they actually observe when they launch it, and they do the diagrams themselves as well.”

It is this hands-on experience that has helped former RCR members secure prestigious jobs at NASA, Blue Origin and Space X as well as startups. Ìę

“For a startup, it’s immensely appealing because they don’t have the luxury of having lots of people and they want people that can do lots of different things and do them well,” Kelly said.

Kelly, a philanthropist who supports a variety of other causes, said he only gives to what is important to him.

“There is a feeling on my part that Speed School gives extremely good value. It costs to get an education that allows you to be successful, and I think Speed is a remarkable bargain,” he said. “It’s a very high quality engineering education.”

Speed School alumnus Gregg Blincoe ’15 is another success story with Blue Origin, where he has worked for more than six years.

“I knew I wanted to get involved in aerospace when I was up early one day watching the Mars Curiosity Rover land and I saw the excitement and joy in all the engineers’ faces,” Blincoe said. “I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and River City Rocketry gave me that opportunity.”

Blincoe said the skills he learned at RCR had a direct impact on his professional career and have been relatable to his job on a daily basis at Blue Origin.

“RCR would not be where it is today, or would even be what it is today, if not for Clint Kelly,” he said. “He saw something in the idea of the team and the students behind it, and has been a supporter and mentor from day one.”

The guidance Kelly gave to RCR students came full circle when Kelly was granted a rare opportunity to fly into space in August 2022 on one of the rockets RCR students Blincoe and Greco helped design and build. Kelly said his space flight experience was “the thrill of a lifetime.”

Blincoe was excited to give back to his former mentor.

“I was so excited to realize I’d be there for his launch,” he said. “He got me the job that put rockets in space and now it was my turn to go and put Clint in space.”

“I probably would have never had the opportunity to work at Blue Origin without him,” Greco said. “Getting to see him fly aboard New Shepard, a rocket I had the opportunity to design part of – it was pretty surreal. I hope he gets the chance to go back to space again, hopefully aboard another Blue Origin rocket.”

“I’ll be forever grateful for the support and faith that Clint had in our team and RCR,” Blincoe said. “My life has been forever changed.”

Watch a video about Kelly’s trip aboard New Shepard 22 at the link below.

Read .

“My dad was a pilot for UPS, and I always had an affinity for space,” said the Speed School alumna. “When I was in elementary school, I told my dad I wanted to go to college at NASA.”

She had no idea how that child’s dream would actually one day come to fruition.

Fly me to the moon

Mazarakis, who graduated from with her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, and a minor in astrophysics in 2019, was part of the team forÌęÌęlaunch on Nov. 15, the first of a series of space missions that aims to return humans to the moon and eventually, send them to Mars.Ìę

The 26-year old, who has been employed by NASA since April 2021, completed her MS in electrical and computer engineering specializing in radio frequency and avionics engineering from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University one month later. She worked as a NASA contractor for two years before her current position as a flight communications and tracking electrical engineer.

“My job in Artemis I is to be a part of the team that tests, verifies and prepares all the radio frequency and antenna systems for launch readiness, as well as the video systems on the Orion crew module,” Mazarakis said. “On launch day, we sit in the firing rooms and say, ‘Go for launch’ on all of the communication systems.

“It’s a feeling like no other. It’s almost like a day that you feel will never come, but when it does, it feels like your first child being born. You’ve put all this work and time and effort into this massive system,” Mazarakis said. “You’ve worked with so many other teams and everybody has really given all their blood, sweat and tears into a successful and safe launch.”

Mazarakis explained that the name Artemis encompasses all of the missions to the moon that NASA will be executing in the next decade.

“Artemis I is the first of a couple increasingly complex missions,” she said. “We will launch Artemis II, which is going to do an orbital flight. Artemis III will be the one where we plan on putting boots on the moon.”

From aspiring engineer to Cape Canaveral Ìę

Originally from New York City, Mazarakis and her family moved to Shelbyville, Kentucky, when she was a middle-schooler. As a high school senior, Mazarakis visited Speed School friends and saw the course work they were doing.

“It occurred to me that I really loved the idea of problem solving, critical thinking, thinking and making things,” she said. “Once I decided on engineering, I knew it would be Speed School because it’s the best engineering school around. Everybody knows their engineers go through a much more rigorous curriculum and are much more prepared for the real world.”

Mazarakis first majored in bioengineering, but changed gears to pursue aerospace once she joined the River City Rocketry (RCR) team, a student organization dedicated to the hands-on building of rockets. Named Student of the Year in 2019, Mazarakis attributes much of her ability and the jobs she’s been offered in her field to her foundational experience with Speed School and with RCR.

“River City Rocketry wasn’t just a club, it was a team where they only pick the people who have real passion that’s palpable, people who are going to be dedicated and spend all their extra time at the engineering garage and really learn how to build rockets,” Mazarakis said.

While a member of RCR, Mazarakis helped her team win the NASA student-launched competition against schools like Purdue, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt.

“These are schools that not only have aerospace programs, but the best in the nation,” she said.

The networking opportunities afforded by RCR and organizations like Phi Sigma Rho Sorority for Women in Engineering helped her secure an instrumental co-op rotation with Red Wire Space, sending her down the path to aerospace success.

“The fact that Speed School has so many alumni who end up at big space companies like NASA, Blue Origin, Gulf Stream Aerospace, SpaceX, is because we weren’t just sitting in class reading textbooks about aerospace,” Mazarakis said. “To be successful, we had to learn it ourselves and just do it. We had the ability to do that through the engineering garage (makerspace) and through mentorship from great professors, but just being able to have the tools was really fantastic.”

Mazarakis likened the rigorous academics of Speed School to boot camp, but said the long, tough hours prepared her for her demanding work schedule at NASA.

“You build up this mental rigor for work that is really useful,” she said. “Sometimes at NASA we work around the clock and I sleep under my desk. I really thought that after college, I would be able get a good night’s sleep. It’s a good thing that I braced myself early.”

The definition of a dream job

“To say working at NASA is gratifying is an understatement,” said Mazarakis. “My whole life I always wanted to work in space, and then at River City Rocketry I realized that I wanted to build rocket ships. But to be here now actually building them, it’s like I have to pinch myself on the daily.”

Mazarakis said a lot of the testing she performs for her job requires her to climb into the rocket’s crew module to test from inside the rocket.

“Of course, I’m focusing on my work when I’m in there but mentally I’m so excited saying to myself, ‘I’m in a rocket, I’m inside the rocket.’”

What is next for the young NASA engineer?

“I feel like I just achieved my ultimate dream, my ultimate goal just two years ago, so to me it feels weird to be thinking ahead right now,” she said. “I’m just so happy to be here where I am.”

What about the idea of Alora Mazarakis, astronaut?Ìę

“It is a lofty ambition and I think I will apply the next time a spaceflight class opens up,” she said. “Do I think I’ll get chosen? Probably not, but I would definitely try. If the opportunity arose, I would gladly, gladly accept – I’ll put it that way.”

Read more news on the Ìę

“This is among schools that have been competing for years, or schools with aerospace programs, so we think this is a good start for us,” said team co-captain Taylor Hsieh.

It marked the first year of Spaceport America Cup competition for the rocketry team, which is based in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering and made up of students from a variety of engineering disciplines (UofL does not have an aerospace program.).

In past years, the team competed in the NASA Student Launch, and won in that competition in 2017.

At Spaceport America, the 24-member UofL team took first place in the Space Dynamics Laboratory payload challenge and first place in the altitude award for predicting flight dynamics.

“We predicted to fly our rocket to 10,091 feet in altitude, and it flew 10,081 feet,” Hsieh said. “We’re extremely pleased by this, as the 99.9% accuracy at nearly 2 miles is the best we’ve ever done.”

Watch .Ìę

Members of the team took their enthusiasm for rockets to the Kentucky Science Center on July 20 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The UofL students gave rocket demonstrations and talked about the history of spaceflight, “hopefully speaking with the Mars Generation,” Hsieh said on the team’s Facebook page.

After finishing in the top three four years in a row, the team finally and a $5,000 cash prize, besting more than 50 other student teams from across the country.

“We couldn’t be more proud of them and are just so pleased that all of their hard work paid off,” said Speed School acting dean John Usher. “They put so much time and effort into it and do it all on a volunteer basis, so it’s just so great to see them finally get the win and recognized for their accomplishments.”

“To finally get first, it feels like we won for this season’s team and for everyone who’s been on the team,” said team co-captain Kevin Compton. “All of our alumni were proud and happy about it. Without them starting it and passing down the knowledge that we were able to use, first place would never have happened.”

What makes the accomplishment even more impressive is that the student team had to completely rebuild their rocket after it exploded during a mid-air test prior to the competition.

“During the explosion I don’t think anyone was really processing what was happening. We were just sitting there with our mouths wide open,” said co-captain Ben Stringer. “After the initial shock, we went right back to work. I don’t think that it even crossed anyone’s minds that we should give up. We put the time in, soldiered on and made it happen.”

The breakthrough win is even more notable because the Speed School does not offer an aeronautics-specific major and the students receive no academic credit for their hard work. But, according to Usher, the NASA experience is already paying off.

“They may not get any academic credit for it, but they are in high demand when they graduate from engineering. We are getting a lot of our students placed at some major hi-tech companies because of the experience they’ve gotten from the rocket team,” he said.Ìę

NASA started the competition to help develop the technologies needed to further space exploration, with the goal of sending humans to Mars by the 2030s. Since 2011, UofL’s teams have earned 10 awards, including Best Vehicle Design, Safety Award, Project Award and more.Ìę

More information about the team is available below:Ìę

“It was definitely a challenge because every year there are a lot of great teams from top-ranked engineering schools that show up, so placing second is quite an accomplishment,” team co-captain Emily Robison said. “The team did really well, winning the website and safety award in addition to finishing second, so a lot really goes into it and you need a well-rounded team to pull off something like that.”

UofL’s rocket entry was made entirely from scratch, right down to its fiberglass tube casing. But what’s even more impressive is that the Speed School does not offer an aeronautics-specific major, meaning that River City Rocketry placed higher than several teams comprised of future aeronautics engineers.

“All kinds of engineering students – electrical, mechanical and computer engineering students – came together to volunteer their time,” Speed School acting dean John Usher said. “This is not a part of a course and they get no academic credit for the project. They participated because they are passionate about it. It allowed them to take the things they learn in the classroom, pick up a screwdriver and apply those concepts with some goal in mind.”

The purpose of the competition was to help NASA develop the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s. For students, the idea of being a part of a project that will hopefully send a human to the Red Planet is awe-inspiring.

“The way the competition is structured to provide NASA with new ideas, and with a bunch of new students working on the team, they provided a fresh perspective which breeds innovation,” Robison said. “It’s really neat to see how something that we can do at this level can be used for something greater.”

“The frontier now is no longer on terra firma, it’s up there,” said Dr. Clinton Kelly III, a member of the Speed School Industrial Board of Advisors. “Anything we can do that encourages kids to open up the new frontier is worth doing. These students are a part of the next generation that are going to be able to get us into orbit at low cost, and once you can do that you’re halfway to everywhere.” ÌęÌęÌęÌę

Check out video from the competition below:Ìę