The USC Rocket Propulsion Lab is a group of largely undergraduate students ardently focused on pushing the state-of-the-art in rocket propulsion technology. Armed with determination and the goal of putting a scratch-built rocket into space, the students associated with this group spend their free time designing, building, and testing experimental rocketry and propulsion hardware both in the lab and at their Mojave test and launch site.

With the advisement of Dr. Daniel Erwin, the RPL operates under the USC Viterbi School's Astronautics department. The group however, is trusted with a great deal of self-management and autonomy as it is internally managed by its own group of Viterbi undergrads. The students involved also span most majors as the project requires attention from almost every discipline. Passionate students from the astronautics, aerospace, mechanical, electrical, industrial systems, and material science departments all contribute to the project and work to meet its unique set of obstacles.

The group is focused primarily on the development of hybrid rocket propulsion systems. This unique technology allows the Rocket Propulsion Lab to push the systems' performance above that of most amateur and university propulsion projects while producing simple, safe, and environmentally-friendly rocket systems. Hybrid technologies have received attention in the professional propulsion community since the early 1980s but have seldom seen successful integration into flight hardware. The USC Rocket Propulsion Lab feels that this underused technology does indeed have a place in modern space systems and is set to prove its viability.