NASA TechRise Student Challenge

NASA TechRise Student Challenge is sponsored by NASA. A nationwide contest inviting students in grades 6–12 to design experiments for NASA-sponsored suborbital commercial flight tests, with winners receiving $1,500 and mentorship.

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8) 2026-2027 DWU: Middle School Design Challenge 2026-2027 DWU: High School Engineering Challenge NASA Modernizes Commercial Airline Systems Explosive Intensification for Hurricane Polo NASA’s Machines for Mars Make Beer Bubbly Cloudy Cloak Over the Northwest NASA Astronaut to Answer Questions from New Hampshire Students NASA Kicks Off Nationwide Effort to Prepare Tomorrow’s Space Workforce NASA’s Integrated Medical Model (IMM) NASA’s Machines for Mars Make Beer Bubbly NASA Unveils Winning Designs for Mars Space Food Systems Challenge Shannon Lucid’s Record-Setting Mission Aboard Mir La NASA anuncia la cobertura de la misión lunar Artemis II Agenda diaria de la misión a la Luna de Artemis II de la NASA La NASA refuerza Artemis: añade una misión y perfecciona su arquitectura general STMD Flight Opportunities NASA TechRise Student Challenge This nationwide contest invites students in sixth through 12th grades attending U.S. public, private, or charter schools — including those in U.S. territories — to team up with their schoolmates to design an experiment under the guidance of an educator.

Teams submit ideas for experiments to fly on a NASA-sponsored suborbital commercial flight test. Competition winners receive $1,500 and virtual mentorship to build their payloads. No experience is necessary to join the NASA TechRise Challenge.

Register for the challenge by Nov. 2, 2026 about NASA TechRise Student Challenge Developing a Nationwide Workforce | Bringing Experiments to the Launchpad | More about TechRise Developing a Nationwide Workforce NASA is calling on middle and high schools across the country to submit science and technology experiment ideas to its sixth TechRise Challenge.

The contest seeks to equip America’s future workforce with the skills needed to advance the U.S. aerospace economy, giving students real-world experience with the same processes that professional researchers follow. Nearly 20,000 students from across all 56 U.S. states and territories have engaged in the experiment design and proposal process for TechRise since 2021.

Visit the competition site To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that Bringing Experiments to the Launchpad The 2025-2026 winning team at Dickinson High School in Dickinson, North Dakota, unpack their NASA TechRise starter kit, which includes a flight box in which to build their experiment.

Credits: Sarah Trustem (Dickinson High School) Flying a payload on a suborbital vehicle exposes it to the conditions of space, allowing researchers — and TechRise students — to collect the data they need to validate their hypotheses and advance their research. This year, students will propose to fly their experiment on a high-altitude balloon operated by Aerostar of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The high-altitude balloon will provide approximately four hours of flight time at about 70,000 feet with exposure to Earth’s upper atmosphere, radiation, and perspective views of Earth. NASA will select 60 winning teams to turn their proposed experiment ideas into reality.

A wide variety of resources are available to support teams through the submission process, including virtual information sessions upon request and a student virtual field trip. In addition to $1,500 to build their payload, winning teams will receive technical support and mentorship to bring their projects to life.

To enter the competition, teams propose their experiment ideas online using the design guidelines and proposal template on the competition site. NASA expects to announce the winners in January 2027. The selected student teams build their payloads from January to May 2027, and the final experiments are scheduled to take flight in summer 2027.

(left) Students from the 2025-2026 winning team at Marist Saint Francis Elementary School in Pago Pago, American Samoa, work on mounting their payload. Credits: Susan Tupuola (Marist Saint Francis Elementary School) (right) Students from the 2025-2026 winning team at Classen School of Advanced Studies Middle School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, work on wiring and drawing a diagram during a team meeting.

Credits: Classen SAS Middle School “Tomorrow’s workforce depends on the bright minds of today’s students. By engaging the next generation of our workforce with hands-on learning opportunities like TechRise, we aim to give them the skills they need to take our country forward in technology, science, and space exploration.

” Danielle McCulloch, program executive, NASA’s Flight Opportunities program More About the TechRise Student Challenge Managed by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and administered by Future Engineers, the TechRise Student Challenge fosters the U.S. space industry through use of commercial vehicles for flight tests, while strengthening America’s space technology researcher community and enabling students across the country to engage directly with professional engineers.

Flight Opportunities purchases flight testing services from its portfolio of commercial providers for the competition. TechRise is one of many NASA Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing efforts within NASA’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate offering opportunities for the public to contribute to America’s space program.

Visit the competition site Projects from the Next Generation Take Flight in 2026 Read about the 2025-2026 TechRise Student Challenge Students Gain Real-World Experience in 2025 Read about the 2024-2025 TechRise Student Challenge Faces of Technology: Meet Wanessa Priesmeyer Wanessa Priesmeyer discusses her work as a flight test campaign manager as well as the TechRise Challenge.

Watch the Faces of Technology video Student Innovations Soar in 2024 Read about the 2023-2024 student payloads NASA Selects Winners of Third TechRise Student Challenge NASA Challenges Students to Fly Earth and Space Experiments NASA TechRise Student Challenge Tests Experiments in Stratosphere NASA TechRise Student Payloads Explore New Heights Rising to the Challenge: NASA TechRise Student Teams Take Flight NASA TechRise Student Experiments Count Down to Flight Learn More and Get Involved Visit the TechRise Website This site provides additional information about getting involved with NASA’s TechRise Challenge, including the challenge milestones and educator and student resources.

For challenge questions and information, please contact support@futureengineers. org. Discover More Topics From NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate NASA Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Armstrong Flight Research Center