Rocket Catcher Challenge Lands with More than 12,300 Students!

The Rocket Catcher Challenge sparked interest in engineering and space science in thousands of students around the world. Winners of the 2025 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge have been announced.

The 2025 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge

More than 12,300 K-12 students explored engineering and entered the 2025 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge. Working in teams of up to four, students from 31 countries took the Rocket Catcher Challenge to design a device to catch a rocket for a vertical landing, a challenge that ties in with current space science and the promise of reusable rockets. In the U.S., entries were received from students in 49 states/locations (including DoD schools, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands).

"Advancements in space science are incredibly exciting, and the Rocket Catcher Challenge gave students an opportunity to design a solution for the type of challenge scientists and engineers are actively working on in the real world," said Tina Lanese, President of Science Buddies.

Celebrating Innovation and Creativity in Engineering

Designed as a STEM challenge that is accessible to students around the world, the Rocket Catcher Challenge emphasized simple, low-cost materials. Even as a mostly paper-and-tape challenge, there was still plenty of room for students to create innovative designs for their rocket-catching device and make optional modifications to the standardized rocket (made from cardboard tubes or paper).

"We are always impressed by the creative approaches students at all grade levels take when designing solutions for the Engineering Challenge," said Lanese. "These are our future engineers at work!"

Students in all grades combined engineering design, physics, and creative thinking to build unique rocket-catching devices. The image below offers a look at some of the solutions that were submitted.

While ladders were not required for this year's challenge, many teams attempted to drop their rockets from higher and higher distances to increase their score.

The 2025 Rocket Catcher Challenge Leaderboards

The 2025 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge results page contains more information and statistics about this year's Rocket Catcher Challenge and awards, including winners of the random drawings, leaderboards by age group, the People's Choice Award winner, and photos of some of the teams who entered this year's challenge.

The images below show some of the teams who earned spots on the challenge leaderboards with their entries.

Do Engineering with Students Throughout the Year

While the official 2025 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge has ended, the project directions and instructional materials for the Rocket Catcher Challenge and all prior Engineering Challenges are available for free. These are ideal hands-on activities to teach engineering anytime and work well with a range of grade levels and in a variety of settings.

See also:

• 12+ Engineering Challenges for Elementary School
• 16+ Engineering Challenges for Middle School
• 11+ Engineering Challenges for High School
• 4 Ways to Teach Engineering Design