ESA experts supporting student teams at the European Rocketry Challenge – EuRoC

From 11-18 October 2022, the 3rd edition of the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC) will take place in Ponte de Sor, Portugal. EuRoC is the first European competition of its kind, organized by the Portuguese Space Agency. EuRoC seeks to stimulate engineering students to design, build and launch their own vehicles. In a broader spectrum the competition aims to encourage students to study science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and to the development of technological skills.

This very well aligns with the objectives of ESA’s Education Programme: to inspire and actively engage the next generation, to develop 21^st century skills, to stimulate creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and ensure a qualified space workforce for Europe.

In total 20 student teams – from 11 different countries – and around 600 students will travel to Portugal to launch their student-built rockets. During the competition they will be supported by experts from industry and space agencies, while they perform final preparations on their rockets and payloads.

Experts will also score the teams and their rockets on different criteria such as quality of technical documentation, design of the rockets, teamwork, flight performance, and payload design. On the last day of the event awards will be given out to recognize the best team in each category. Of course, there will also an overall winner of the “EuRoC Award”, for the team performing the best over all categories.

This year, ESA and ESA Academy join the event to support the Portuguese Space Agency and the participating students. ESA experts join to support the student teams during preparations and to assist the evaluation for the different awards. A representative from ESA Human Resources will present entry level career paths at the agency. Also, a special “Payload Award” will be sponsored by ESA. It will be awarded the team with the overall best payload.

“This third edition is our opportunity to show consistency and to affirm EuRoC as the place to be for European rocketeers. Having the support of the European Space Agency in this years’ edition of EuRoC reflects how much the competition has been growing since 2020. It is also a clear sign of cooperation and shows how ESA values Space Education, which is also one of the strategic objectives of Portuguese Strategy for Space”, says the president of the Portuguese Space Agency, Ricardo Conde.