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Prizes to USA student teams that are sponsored by schools, nonprofits, and youth organizations for successfully competing in an aerospace STEM competition. Teams may be comprised of students enrolled in grades 6 through 12. Competing teams will design innovative rockets to be presented at an aerospace demonstration.

The purpose of the TARC program is to inspire and excite students about learning and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is the world’s largest student rocket contest and a key piece of the aerospace and defense industry’s strategy to build a stronger U.S. workforce in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) provides 6th through 12th grade students a realistic experience in designing a flying aerospace vehicle that meets a specified set of mission and performance requirements. Students work together in teams the same way aerospace engineers do. Over a period of several months, they experience the engineering process and compete through qualifying flights of their rockets with thousands of peers all across the country for the opportunity to participate in the culminating national fly-off event.

The rules vary slightly each year to provide a new challenge to competitors. The 2020 rules require teams to design, build, and launch a model rocket that carries one raw egg to an altitude of 800 feet, stays airborne for 40 - 43 seconds, and return the rocket to the ground safely with the egg intact.

After official qualification flights are submitted, the top 100 teams are invited to attend the National Finals in Washington, D.C. Teams competing at the Final Fly-Off look to capture their share of over $100,000 in cash prizes. There are also special awards for activities throughout the day.

The team that places first at the National Finals wins an all-expenses-paid trip to represent the United States in the International Rocketry Challenge, hosted at the Farnborough Air Show in London, England in July 2020. The United States Rocketry Team competes against the winning teams from Japan, the United Kingdom, and France.