Daniel I Pineda

Assc Prof @utsa_ceid. Advancing propulsion & energy science w/ spectroscopy. 🚀 Alum @SpearrinLab @UCBerkeley & @UTAustin 🤘🏽 Views my own.

[Daniel I Pineda @danielpineda]

Working on starting up a new thing. Come find me.

[Daniel I Pineda @danielpineda]

"Hail Mary" successfully launched by @arc_utsa this week at IREC! Special thanks to Chris Maier for the launch video. @UTSA continues to make waves in rockets 🚀 @utsa_ceid @DrChrisCombs

[UT San Antonio @UTSA]

Did you know that in November 2025, UT San Antonio became the first university in Texas to launch a student-built liquid propellant rocket?

The rocket, named Jinx, was launched at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry site in the Mojave Desert, as it can be difficult to get permission to launch a liquid propellant rocket in many parts of the country, including Texas.

The students, with their mentor and sponsor, UT San Antonio professor Daniel Pineda, used a fuel made of nitrous oxide and ethanol, both in the liquid phase, and achieved 10,061 feet in altitude above ground, exceeding their target altitude of 10,000 feet.

The rocket was successfully recovered in one piece and the parachutes deployed as designed during the launch.

We can't wait to see what they achieve next!

[SpearrinLab @SpearrinLab]

Honored to be recognized by colleagues in the combustion community with the Tsuji award and thankful for their mentorship and collaboration!

[Daniel I Pineda @danielpineda]

Saw a few "D.A.R.E." shirts on my flights today. Reminded of campaigns way back when I was a kid across local, state, federal agencies, "kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray." Anyone else remember this?

[Chris Combs (iterative design enjoyer) @DrChrisCombs]

Awesome stuff from our @UTSA rocket club: successful static fire of an in-house solid motor 🔥

Major props to @arc_utsa & faculty lead @danielpineda

[Matt Dinan @second_sailing]

The honest B or C student, submitting essays filled with awkward constructions, malapropisms, earnest, if failed or surface-y arguments--a surprise hero of the present age.

[Rocket League (for girls) @utsanasasl]

We have officially completed our final test launch! After 5 weeks and 3 launches, we have learned so much and so excited to display our design and represent UTSA in Huntsville!

[Daniel I Pineda @danielpineda]

What "old" movie is most important to transfer to the next generation ? I would vote Terminator(s) (one and two) over Top Gun. I'm aerospace, I know. But the times are what they are.

[Daniel I Pineda @danielpineda]

Ritual every new computer

[Chris Combs (iterative design enjoyer) @DrChrisCombs]

now is your chance: get off the couch and be the person that teaches spacex how to fix their tps system

[alli @sonofalli]

how it feels to be an em dash user now that ChatGPT has ruined them

[Daniel I Pineda @danielpineda]

My non-strategy of not having a 401k after living as an adult through 2008, 2020, and now, certainly seems to be an interesting gambit where I'm sure that I'm not "ahead" of where I would have been but I'm certainly less stressed than I would have been

[owen cyclops @owenbroadcast]

every time there is a tornado watch my wife is very concerned and i am thinking about this image

[Chris Combs (iterative design enjoyer) @DrChrisCombs]

Gotta hand it to Isar this is the most picturesque launch failure video I've ever seen

Space is hard

[Alexis Blexas @agraybee]

There is exactly one generation that can rotate a pdf and there will never be another. The knowledge dies with us.

[Daniel I Pineda @danielpineda]

@concordeux Classic

[Daniel I Pineda @danielpineda]

This year, I've had the privilege to mentor a fantastic group of four students representing @UTSA in the 2025 @NASA Student Launch Competition. This weekend, they flew a test launch in the Lone Star Cup, earning 2nd place! Looking forward to the competition launch in Huntsville!

[Daniel I Pineda @danielpineda]

I always make a point of mentioning this in every class I teach

[∇·(𝜌𝐮𝐮) 🇺🇸 @male_leo_xxviii]

Never forget pressure is also volumetric energy density