National Space Grant Colleges are educational institutions in the United States established in 1988 for outer space-related research. National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program - Wikipedia
Mississippi State University is a National Space Grant College. The University funds a student team to design, build, launch, and analyze rockets for the University Student Launch Initiative (USLI Rocket Project). The University of Mississippi provides a hands-on experience in which students participate in a large-scale aerospace project to launch a student-designed, student-built rocket to deploy a payload at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Higher Education Programs - National Space Grant Foundation