Hoo-Rizon 1: Subscale Sounding Rocket; “Something Is Wrong”: Tracing The Lifecycle Of Safety In High-Risk Aerospace Systems

Both of my undergraduate thesis projects—my aerospace capstone on the design of a high-powered sounding rocket and my STS research on safety culture—explore a central question: how do engineers maintain safety amid growing complexity, ambition, and risk? As aerospace becomes increasingly fast-paced and commercially driven, safety must be understood not just as a technical issue but as an organizational and cultural one.

In my technical project, I served as propulsion team lead on Hoo-Rizon 1, a student-designed subscale sounding rocket. Our team used a systems engineering approach modeled after NASA’s project lifecycle, incorporating aerodynamic analysis, propulsion design, and risk management tools. Beyond building technical skills, the project emphasized safety as a design parameter. One of our key findings was that while students naturally emphasized technical success metrics (altitude, stability, etc.), there was difficulty seeking and interpreting safety guidelines, standards, and protocols. By adopting structured systems engineering processes and accountability tools, our team made significant strides in not only building a technically sound rocket but also instilling habits that reinforce safe engineering practices.

My STS research complements this by examining why safety breaks down in real-world aerospace organizations, using the Challenger and Columbia disasters as case studies. I developed a framework called Safety Prioritization Theory to explain how institutional cultures can normalize risk over time. Drawing on theories like Vaughan’s "Normalization of Deviance", the Collingridge Dilemma, and the distinction between safety culture and climate, I argue that true safety requires proactive cultural and procedural safeguards—especially early in the design process.

Together, these two projects were successful in offering a dual contribution to the sociotechnical challenge of aerospace safety. While our capstone team successfully demonstrated how systems engineering frameworks can be taught and operationalized in an academic setting, my STS research underscores the real-world risks of cultural drift and organizational complacency. Future research should explore how educational programs can more explicitly teach students to identify cultural warning signs of safety breakdowns and how early-career engineers can be empowered to challenge unsafe norms in professional environments. Additionally, further work could focus on developing metrics to assess the strength of safety culture and climate in both academic and professional settings.

Acknowledgments
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my advisors, Professor Caitlin Wylie and Professor Haibo Dong, for their unwavering support, insightful feedback, and encouragement throughout this journey. I also deeply appreciate my capstone team members, whose collaboration and dedication made Hoo-Rizon 1 possible.

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Technical Advisor: Haibo Dong

STS Advisor: Caitlin Wylie

Technical Team Members: Ben Cohen, Tyler MacFarlane, Omid Sayyadli, Laurel Supplee, Ethan Fouch, Youchan Kim, Jean-Pierre Manapsal, Kushi Sethuram, Christian Vergason, George Hubbard, Jacob Lewis, Connor Owens, Swedha Skandakumar, Luke Pritchard