Tanaka Chonyera · [email protected] · Indianapolis, Indiana
The latest version of this press kit is at tanakachonyera.com/press-kit. Upcoming build and launch dates are at tanakachonyera.com/join.
| Program | High-Power Rocket Bootcamp (Dreamernaut Rocket Bootcamp), a free program in which students build, paint and launch their own high-power rockets |
| Founder and lead instructor | Tanaka Chonyera, mechanical and aerospace engineer; Project Manager, Capital Projects at Eli Lilly and Company |
| Started | August 2025, with the first launch on August 24, 2025, at the Rocketeers of Central Indiana field in Muncie |
| Cohorts | 10, from August 2025 to September 2026 (listed below) |
| Participants trained | 390+ |
| Rockets built / launched | 336 built; 170+ launched |
| Maximum altitude | 5,000 feet |
| Adult volunteers | 174+ |
| Student contact hours | 2,800+ |
| Cost to families | $0. The only charge is a $25 retention fee, refunded when the student attends every session. The program covers $325+ of value per student. |
| Ages | 8 and up. Ages 6 and 7 can take part with a parent at the table for the build. |
| Format | One to three build days, then a launch day at an approved launch site. Some partner events are a single build day. |
| Where | Builds in Indianapolis, Fishers and Lebanon; launches at club fields in Muncie and Pence and at Sheridan Airport |
| Funding raised | $155K+: $80K through MEPI (the Minority Engineering Program of Indianapolis), including a $40K Cummins grant, and $75K from Lilly Social Impact for the 2026 Global Day of Service. Purdue University separately funded the Indiana Black Expo Youth Leadership Summit cohort. |
| Funding partners | MEPI, Cummins, Eli Lilly and Company, Purdue University |
| Program partners | Indiana State Museum, Indiana Black Expo, City of Fishers, Enlace Academy, Hattie B. Stokes Elementary, Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, Indiana Rocketry, Rocketeers of Central Indiana; in-kind supporter System Three Resins. Program spending has gone to 23 U.S. small businesses. Details |
| Safety | Students build the airframes; the motors are commercially manufactured and certified. Launches follow the NAR or Tripoli safety code of the host club, with FAA airspace coordination, at club launch fields and at Sheridan Airport. Tanaka is the Flyer of Record and inspects every student rocket before launch. |
| Public goal | 1,000 student rockets, and the most rockets per capita in the world for Indiana |
Figures as of November 1, 2026, from program attendance records and funding agreements. Documents behind each claim: tanakachonyera.com/recognition#claims.
The High-Power Rocket Bootcamp is a free program in Indiana where students build, paint and launch their own high-power rockets, flying as high as 5,000 feet. Engineer Tanaka Chonyera founded it in August 2025. It has trained 390+ participants across ten cohorts, with 336 rockets built and $155K+ raised through MEPI, including a Cummins grant, and from Lilly Social Impact. Purdue University separately funded one cohort. Tanaka runs the bootcamp with MEPI, the Minority Engineering Program of Indianapolis. It is separate from his job at Eli Lilly; Lilly Social Impact funded the 2026 Global Day of Service cohort.
Upcoming build and launch dates are posted at tanakachonyera.com/join. Reporters are welcome to ask about attending a build day or launch day.
More from parents, teachers, engineers and Franklin College students: tanakachonyera.com/testimonials.
Tanaka Chonyera is a mechanical and aerospace engineer and a capital project manager at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. In August 2025 he founded the High-Power Rocket Bootcamp, a free program where students build and launch their own high-power rockets. It has trained 390+ participants across ten cohorts.
Tanaka Chonyera is a mechanical and aerospace engineer who leads a $150M+ capital capacity expansion at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. Born in Zimbabwe and raised in Botswana, he founded his high school’s first student-led rocketry program in 2018 and won 1st place in Africa in the essay category of the 2018 DStv Eutelsat Star Awards. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace Concentration from Michigan State University in 2024. In August 2025 he founded the High-Power Rocket Bootcamp, which has trained 390+ participants, built 336 rockets and raised $155K+. In 2026 he received a Letter of Recognition from Indiana Governor Mike Braun and was named an NSBE 25 Under 25 honoree.
Tanaka Chonyera is a mechanical and aerospace engineer and a Project Manager, Capital Projects at Eli Lilly and Company, where he leads a $150M+ capital capacity expansion of warehouse and logistics infrastructure from design through construction, commissioning and qualification. He joined Lilly in June 2024.
He was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in Botswana. At Maru-a-Pula School in Gaborone he founded the school’s first student-led rocketry program, the Maru-a-Pula Rocketry and STEM Club, in February 2018 and built solid-propellant rockets from scratch. His rocket won the gold medal at the 2018 Lebone STEM Derby in South Africa, where the school placed first overall. On February 13, 2019, he was announced as the 1st place essay winner in Africa at the 2018 DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, Botswana’s first win in that category, and in January 2020 the prize took him to Kourou, French Guiana, to watch an Ariane 5 launch.
At Michigan State University he earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace Concentration in 2024 on $140,000 in merit-based scholarships. He built a high voltage divider for laser spectroscopy at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, developed a faster diamond electrode fabrication method at Fraunhofer USA, interned at First Solar and led his senior capstone team’s aerodynamic design for MSU Solar Racing.
In August 2025 he founded the High-Power Rocket Bootcamp, a free program where students build, paint and launch their own high-power rockets. As of November 1, 2026, it has run ten cohorts, trained 390+ participants, built 336 rockets and raised $155K+. At LDRS 44, the Tripoli Rocketry Association’s annual national launch in April 2026, he made 34 flights, the most of any flyer. He received a Letter of Recognition from Indiana Governor Mike Braun in September 2026, was named an NSBE 25 Under 25 honoree in 2026 and received an Eli Lilly Rise Recognition in October 2026. His work has been covered by the Indianapolis Star, WTHR, Fox59 and The Week Junior.
| # | Cohort | Build | Launch |
| 1 | Summer 2025 Camp Dellwood, Girl Scouts of Central Indiana · Indianapolis | Aug 2, 9 and 16, 2025 | Aug 24, 2025 ROCI field, Muncie |
| 2 | Fall 2025 Park · Indianapolis | Nov 1 and 8, 2025 | Feb 8, 2026 Indiana Rocketry field, Pence (November launches scrubbed for wind) |
| 3 | Winter 2026, first group Camp Dellwood · Indianapolis | Jan 25, 2026 | Feb 8, 2026 Indiana Rocketry field, Pence |
| 4 | Winter 2026, second group Camp Dellwood · Indianapolis | Feb 1, 2026 | Feb 8, 2026 Indiana Rocketry field, Pence |
| 5 | Spring 2026 Camp Dellwood · Indianapolis | Apr 4 and 18, 2026 | Apr 19, 2026 Indiana Rocketry field, Pence, during LDRS 44 |
| 6 | Enlace Academy Indianapolis · 75 students | May 7, 2026 | One-day build |
| 7 | Indiana Black Expo Youth Leadership Summit With Purdue University · Indianapolis | Jul 17, 2026 | No launch (one-day build) |
| 8 | Indiana State Museum, Space Day Indianapolis | Jul 18, 2026 | One-day build |
| 9 | City of Fishers Fishers Maker Playground · Fishers | Aug 2, 2026 | Aug 9, 2026 ROCI field, Muncie |
| 10 | Lilly Global Day of Service Hattie B. Stokes Elementary · Lebanon | Sep 24, 2026 | Sep 25, 2026 Sheridan Airport |
| Date | Outlet | Story |
| October 29, 2026 | Indianapolis Star | “Meet Tanaka Chonyera, the man aiming to inspire next generation of rocket scientists,” by Christine Tannous, with a 20-photo gallery and video; syndicated by Yahoo and MSN indystar.com |
| September 25, 2026 | Eli Lilly and Company social media (Instagram, LinkedIn) | Global Day of Service project card for the Indiana rocket build, one of 210 Global Day of Service projects worldwide linkedin.com |
| June 15, 2026 | Fox59 Indy Now, also aired on CBS4 | “MEPI High-Power Rocket Bootcamp with Fishers Maker Playground” fox59.com |
| April 3, 2026 | The Week Junior (national weekly) | Profile in the People section tanakachonyera.com |
| March 3, 2026 | 97.5 WCOS (iHeartRadio) Morning Rush | “Rocket Scientist Launches Rocket Camp For Kids” 975wcos.iheart.com |
| February 26, 2026 | WTHR 13News (NBC Indianapolis) | “Indianapolis engineer launches free rocket boot camp for kids,” by Alex Almanza, broadcast and online; syndicated by Yahoo wthr.com |
| 2025 to 2026 | Reddit (r/space, r/pics, r/rocketry and others) | Posts about the bootcamp, nine above 100,000 views and three above 380,000. View counts: tanakachonyera.com/recognition#metrics reddit.com |
| March 25, 2022 | The Greensheet, Facility for Rare Isotope Beams | Feature on his high voltage divider for laser spectroscopy tanakachonyera.com |
| February 21, 2020 | Botswana Guardian | “DStv Eutelsat Award’s Botswana winner sets Africa’s sights on space,” the same headline as the MultiChoice Botswana release of February 19 tanakachonyera.com |
| February 19, 2020 | MultiChoice Botswana | Press release on the prize trip to Paris and French Guiana tanakachonyera.com |
| January 22, 2020 | Eutelsat Communications (Flickr) | Photo and video of Tanaka at the Ariane 5 launch, Guiana Space Center flickr.com |
| March 31, 2019 | Space in Africa | “18-year-old Tanaka Chonyera wants to lead Zimbabwe to space” spaceinafrica.com |
| March 6, 2019 | Mwananchi (Tanzania) | “Tanzania yang’ara DStv Eutelsat Star Awards” mwananchi.co.tz |
| February 26, 2019 | The Patriot on Sunday | Interview with MultiChoice Botswana’s managing director naming him the continental winner tanakachonyera.com |
| February 22, 2019 | Botswana Guardian | “Botswana’s Future Astronaut is Born” tanakachonyera.com |
| February 18, 2019 | Mmegi | “Motswana Wins At DStv Eutelsat Star Awards,” by Mompati Tlhankane tanakachonyera.com |
| February 15, 2019 | Space in Africa | “Botswana and Tanzania students win DStv Eutelsat Star Award” spaceinafrica.com |
| February 14, 2019 | MultiChoice Group, News Ghana, Botswana Unplugged | Winners announcements and coverage multichoice.com |
| February 13, 2019 | Eutelsat (English and French releases) | Winners of the 8th DStv Eutelsat Star Awards mynewsdesk.com |
| February 2019 | Maru-a-Pula School | “MaP’s Tanaka Chonyera Wins ‘Star Award,’” plus the school newsletter and the principal’s LinkedIn article (February 25, 2019) maruapula.org |
| 2019 | BTV, DStv and Yarona FM | Botswana national television, DStv and radio interviews |
Captures, scans and transcripts of every item: tanakachonyera.com/press.
Written by Tanaka in the first person. The same timeline is at tanakachonyera.com/timeline.
| Until 2005 | I went to Whitestone School in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. |
| 2005 to 2012 | In Botswana I went to Busy Bees, then Broadhurst Primary School in Gaborone, where I graduated in 2012. |
| 2013 | I spent the year at Legae Academy. |
| 2014 | I started at Maru-a-Pula School in Gaborone, where I studied until 2020. |
| May 2017 | I wrote ALACOM, a messaging app built as a console program in Visual Basic .NET, and kept improving it in numbered releases. Source |
| November 2017 | I earned 5 A* and 4 A grades in my Cambridge IGCSE exams. Source |
| January 28, 2018 | The Sunday Standard featured me among Maru-a-Pula's top IGCSE students. Source |
| February 2018 | I founded the Maru-a-Pula Rocketry and STEM Club, the school's first student-led rocketry program, and started building solid-propellant rockets from scratch. Source |
| April 2018 | I received a Science Olympiad (Informatics) Certificate of Achievement from the Botswana Science Association, as part of the International Junior Science Olympiad selection. Source |
| 2018 | At the Lebone STEM Derby in South Africa, Maru-a-Pula placed first overall and my rocket won the gold medal. Source |
| October 2018 | I wrote my essay for the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, on better uses of satellites. Source |
| January 25, 2019 | Mmegi printed Maru-a-Pula's results page with my AS-Level results. Source |
| February 13, 2019 | The 2018 DStv Eutelsat Star Awards winners were announced in Accra, Ghana. I won 1st place in Africa in the essay category, the first Botswana win in that category. Source |
| February 14 to 18, 2019 | The win was covered by the MultiChoice Group newsroom, News Ghana, Botswana Unplugged and Mmegi. Source |
| February 22, 2019 | The Botswana Guardian ran "Botswana's Future Astronaut is Born". Source |
| February 26, 2019 | The Patriot on Sunday interviewed MultiChoice Botswana's managing director, who described me as the continental winner. Source |
| March 2019 | At the African Leadership Academy STEM Derby, I entered a parabolic solar concentrator, and Maru-a-Pula was runner-up. |
| March 2019 | Mwananchi in Tanzania covered the win, and I was interviewed on Yarona FM. Source |
| March 31, 2019 | Space in Africa published "18-year-old Tanaka Chonyera wants to lead Zimbabwe to space." Source |
| May 24, 2019 | I gave an assembly talk to students and parents at Broadhurst Primary School, the primary school I attended. Source |
| July 1, 2019 | I received a certificate of appreciation from the Maru-a-Pula Naalano Leadership Conference. Source |
| August 9, 2019 | I received the BSPCA Service Award through Maru-a-Pula School Service. Source |
| January 13 to 20, 2020 | The Star Awards prize trip took me to Paris and then to Kourou, French Guiana. Source |
| January 16, 2020 | I watched Ariane 5 flight VA251 lift off from the Guiana Space Center. Source |
| February 19, 2020 | MultiChoice Botswana released "DStv Eutelsat Award's Botswana winner sets Africa's sights on space". Source |
| February 21, 2020 | The Botswana Guardian covered the trip under the same headline. Source |
| September 2020 | I started a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace Concentration at Michigan State University on $140,000 in merit-based scholarships. |
| September 2021 to April 2022 | I worked as a Mechanical Design & Nuclear Physics Research Intern at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, designing and building a high voltage divider for laser spectroscopy as a Wielenga Research Scholar. Source |
| September 2021 to April 2022 | I was on the aerodynamics and powertrain team of MSU Formula Racing. Source |
| March 25, 2022 | FRIB's Greensheet featured the high voltage divider. Source |
| April 2022 | I presented my poster, "Accurate High Voltage Measurement for Laser Spectroscopy," at MSU's undergraduate research forum as first author. Source |
| April 13, 2022 | The MSU College of Engineering wrote me a letter of recommendation. Source |
| May 2022 to May 2023 | I worked as an Applied Research & Additive Manufacturing Intern at Fraunhofer USA, where my boron-doped diamond electrode method cut production time by 40%. Source |
| September 2022 to May 2024 | I served as Secretary and Communications Chair of the MSU chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. |
| May 2023 | A paper in Biosensors acknowledged me for experimental help with the Fraunhofer electrode work. Source |
| May 22 to August 18, 2023 | I worked as a Development & Process Engineering Intern at First Solar in Perrysburg, Ohio. Source |
| January to April 2024 | I led the aerodynamic body design team for MSU Solar Racing as my senior capstone. The cockpit design cut drag coefficient by 50%. Source |
| February 21, 2024 | The MSU College of Engineering named me a 2024 Boeing Scholarship recipient. Source |
| May 2024 | I graduated from Michigan State University's Honors College with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Source |
| June 3, 2024 | I started at Eli Lilly and Company as a Project Manager, Capital Projects. |
| November 16, 2024 | I organized a rocket field trip to the Indiana Rocketry launch at Pence. |
| March 2025 | I drafted the plan for a free High-Power Rocket Bootcamp with MEPI, the Minority Engineering Program of Indianapolis. |
| August 2 to 24, 2025 | The first cohort built rockets at Camp Dellwood on August 2, 9 and 16 and launched on August 24 at the ROCI field in Muncie. Source |
| November 1 and 8, 2025 | The Fall 2025 cohort built its rockets. Wind scrubbed both November launch days, and the cohort flew on February 8, 2026. Source |
| January 25 and February 1, 2026 | Two Winter 2026 cohorts built rockets at Camp Dellwood. Source |
| February 8, 2026 | The Winter 2026 and Fall 2025 cohorts launched at the Indiana Rocketry field in Pence. Source |
| February 16, 2026 | NSBE selected me for its 25 Under 25 Class of 2026. Source |
| February 26, 2026 | WTHR ran "Indianapolis engineer launches free rocket boot camp for kids". Source |
| March 3, 2026 | 97.5 WCOS (iHeart) Morning Rush picked up the WTHR story. Source |
| March 18 to 22, 2026 | I was recognized at the NSBE Annual Convention in Baltimore. Source |
| April 2026 | The Week Junior profiled me in its People section, and Lilly featured my STEM mentorship during National Volunteer Week. Source |
| April 16 to 19, 2026 | At LDRS 44 in Pence, the Tripoli Rocketry Association's annual national launch (852 flights from 576 registered flyers), I made 34 flights, the most of any flyer. Source |
| April 19, 2026 | The Spring 2026 cohort launched 39 rockets at LDRS 44. Source |
| May 7, 2026 | I ran a one-day build for 75 students at Enlace Academy, the first replication of the bootcamp at another institution. Source |
| June 15, 2026 | Fox59 Indy Now ran a segment on the bootcamp with the City of Fishers, also aired on CBS4. Source |
| July 17, 2026 | I ran a one-day build at the Indiana Black Expo Youth Leadership Summit with Purdue University. Source |
| July 18, 2026 | I ran a one-day build at the Indiana State Museum's Space Day. Source |
| August 2 and 9, 2026 | The City of Fishers cohort built at the Fishers Maker Playground and launched in Muncie. Source |
| August 17, 2026 | System Three Resins became an in-kind supporter. |
| September 24 and 25, 2026 | For Lilly's Global Day of Service, students built rockets at Hattie B. Stokes Elementary in Lebanon with 124 volunteers and launched at Sheridan Airport. Source |
| September 25, 2026 | Governor Mike Braun's Letter of Recognition was presented at the Sheridan Airport launch. Source |
| October 8, 2026 | I spoke to Professor Miranda Carter's public relations class at Franklin College. Source |
| October 14, 2026 | I received an Eli Lilly Rise Recognition, nominated by Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Eric Dozier. Source |
| October 29, 2026 | The Indianapolis Star published "Meet Tanaka Chonyera, the man aiming to inspire next generation of rocket scientists," syndicated by Yahoo and MSN. Source |
Interview, photo and visit requests: [email protected]. Website: tanakachonyera.com.