Dark Works Space Labs

“Man I rly want to start a rocket team haha” – Gary

“That would be so cool..” – Thomas P.

The texts that started our Dark Works, but certainly not the beginning. After all, most of us met at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, loving all things aerospace comes with the territory there. Even then, several of us actually made rocket motors even though we did not study anything aerospace. Out of curiosity for more, we had done back of the napkin math to see the cost for starting a rocket team would be but alas as poor college students that wasn’t going to happen quite yet. 

Now, after over 6 years of waiting, through the pandemic, career setbacks, and personal challenges, we’re finally able to reach upwards. But more importantly, those struggles taught us something essential: we cannot do this alone. When we feel unsteady, our team is there. When they feel unsteady, we show up.

What we realized is that this project matters not just for us, but for everyone curious about how the universe works. We want to demystify science and engineering through rocketry and astronomy by doing it together, publicly, and with our communities. This isn’t about gatekeeping knowledge, it’s about showing people of all ages that scientific discovery is possible when you have the right support.

What We Do:

• Conduct hands-on rocketry and astronomical research and document every step so others can learn from both our breakthroughs and our failures.
• Make science accessible to all ages by publishing findings, technical writeups, and educational content that works whether you’re 12 or 92.
• Show up in our local communities to prove that curiosity and discovery are accessible to all.

What you can expect from Dark Works: 

• Transparent project updates and detailed technical writeups. We show our work, not just our wins.
• Behind-the-scenes stories that reveal what it actually takes to build and learn as a team.
• Data, papers, and reproducible results so you can verify our findings, build on them, or even prove us wrong (we welcome it!).
• Educational content for everyone, from kids asking “how do rockets work?” to engineers diving into the math.

We’re not experts who have it all figured out. We’re a team of people who got tired of wishing things were different and decided to build something instead. If that resonates with you, whether you want to follow along, contribute, or just cheer us on, we’d love to have you. Let’s reach upwards together.