My name is Benjamin Murkis. A junior at Livingston High School (NJ), I built my first rocket when I was 8. It never made it off the ground, but my passion for rockets did. Since then, my skills have improved significantly! Today, I am the Captain of the nationally competitive Livingston High School Rocketry Team. We participate in the American Rocketry Challenge every year.

Since discovering rockets, I've turned my home into a launch pad. I have designed, built, and flown countless high-power rockets, from two-stage to dual-deployment capable rockets. I also designed and produced my own rocket motor. It was made with PVC pipes and packed with fuel whose chemical formula I devised. 

I build rockets because I love the challenge. There is nothing like seeing a project develop from design to launch. Building rockets has taught me so much about STEM concepts, critical thinking, and problem solving. I've learned about verifying and refuting hypotheses, physics (inertia, gravity, air resistance, acceleration, and Newton's laws of motion). I've also learned a tremendous amount about engineering, including thrust, weight, and control, as well as about jet propulsion, and about using electronic sensors that guide and control my rockets. These skills are important for so many things in addition to rocketry. As a member of my school's Shell Eco Marathon car-building team, I'm applying my rocketry skills to making cars go faster!

In order to make my rockets go higher and faster, I am always taking classes and working with new building partners. So far, the most helpful classes I've taken outside of school have been the Johns Hopkins CTY Aerospace Engineering summer program, and Introduction to Engineering at Embry-Riddle in Florida, which is home to the most famous of rocket launch sites, Cape Canaveral. 

In the future, I would like to be an Aerospace Engineer working on rockets and rocket propulsion, specifically, designing new fuels for deep space travel. I'm currently designing a new fuel to make my rocket motor more efficient and powerful.

Rocketry is the ultimate team activity. It takes countless kinds of different expertise to put humans into space. That is why I am dedicated to growing the community of rocket fanatics. How else are we going to make private space travel a reality in our lifetime?

Please take the time to read my blog page. I'd love to hear your ideas. I hope you will pay attention to the events page I've created, I hope to see you at one of our gatherings. I hope you will reach out to me with any questions or messages.