After the graduation of the two lone members at the time of the Saint Peter High School Aerospace Club in the spring of 2025, it looked like the group’s future wasn’t very bright; that is, until a determined group of seniors this year stepped forward a year ago to keep the club going.
Khalid Ibrahim and Elliot Schmidt led the effort to continue the Aerospace Club’s legacy in 2025-26 and welcomed classmates Sam Barnick, Elliot Klobassa, and Xander Fromm into the mix, giving the club solid footing for this school year. Khalid is the younger brother of former SPHS Aerospace Club member Isam Ibrahim who co-founded the group with fellow 2025 SPHS alum Logan Pherson. The Aerospace Club’s teacher advisor is Aaron Dimock, who worked with the previous club as well.
(PICTURED ABOVE) SPHS Aerospace Club members include, (l to r), Khaled Ibrahim, Elliot Schmidt, Sam Barnick, Elliot Klobassa, and (inset) Xander Fromm.
“We’re very excited to continue and build on the work my brother and Logan did to keep their legacy going,” Khalid Ibrahim said. “Elliot and I were able to get some of our friends to join us last school year, and we’d like to continue to build on that momentum this year and keep my brother and Logan’s legacy alive.”
Ideally, the new members of the Aerospace Club had hoped to do a public launch of a rocket at SPHS, similar to what the original duo did on a couple of occasions in the past few years. However that isn’t possible this time around given the larger scope of their current rocket project, compared to the previous group. The current club is planning a launch at their regular launch location near Albert Lea in the spring of 2027, and plans are in the works to do a livestream of the launch in some capacity. Stay turned for more details on that!
“With the help of my father, our group earned a Level 1 rocket certification over the summer months,” Schmidt said. “Our goal is to eventually get everyone in the club certified at level one, and then eventually seek Level 2 certification, but that’s a ways down the road.”
The rocket they hope to eventually launch near the rural Albert Lea location will be constructed from a kit, which the group will work on together and also do all the electrical programming for the rocket’s motor. That rocket will have the capability to go up 5,000 feet into the air, if all goes as planned.
The group still has a lot of work to do before they can launch their rocket, and they are targeting spring 2027 as a potential launch date.
“It’s a fun group to work with, and we all get along really well,” Ibrahim said. “We’ve all put in a lot of work to make this year’s launch happen, and we’re hoping to really put on a great show for those who are able to make it to our launch.”