First Spaceport Cup competition wraps up

LAS CRUCES – A little worn from southern New Mexico’s desert heat and wind, more than 1,100 aerospace engineering students packed up their bags, loaded up their vans and headed home after completing the first Spaceport America Cup, which wrapped up Saturday.

More than 90 teams of student engineers competed in the event and were judged on their presentations, safety procedures and earned points for coming closest to pre-determined altitudes when launching their rockets. 

The International Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition moved to Spaceport America this year after having been held in southern Utah for the past six years.

The event, sponsored by The Experimental Sounding Rocket Association and Spaceport America, drew students from universities across the United States as well as abroad. In addition to the competition, students had a chance to network and to meet with representatives from leading aerospace companies from around the world. 

Students and judges alike braved extreme heat at the spaceport from Thursday through Saturday to help make the first event a success. A banquet under the stars that had been planned Saturday at the southern Sierra County spaceport had to be moved inside because of a dust storm. 

"Reflecting on the highlights of the Spaceport America Cup, the most impressive thing was watching these innovative students from around the world pushing the edge of rocket science as they develop future capabilities for humankind," said Dan Hicks, Spaceport America CEO.

"It's so exciting to see their successes and to see their learning opportunities — because with each mishap comes a learning opportunity to grow and develop even better. Spaceport America and ESRA are so grateful to our dedicated judges, volunteers, recruiters and sponsors for helping make this inaugural Spaceport America Cup just amazing." 

As part of the event, a 53-foot-tall high-power sport rocket launched Saturday from Spaceport America, carrying 16 payloads.

The Future Heavy rocket was designed and built by United Launch Alliance (ULA) summer interns. It is the largest sport rocket to launch anywhere in the world, breaking the record set previously by ULA in 2016.

“The future of the space industry lies in the interns and students designing, building, and launching Future Heavy and the payloads it carried,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO. “United Launch Alliance continuously works to encourage the next generation of rocket scientists, astronauts, space entrepreneurs and enthusiasts. The sky (and physics) is the limit on the creativity and ingenuity at the Student Rocket Launch.”