Spaceport America, NM – June 27, 2019 –Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport and the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA), announced the University of Washington Society for Advanced Rocket Propulsion as the Champion of the Third Annual Spaceport America Cup. Champions were selected in each category, and the University of Washington team was chosen by judges from the group of category champions as the overall winner.
From June 18–22, thousands of students and spectators flocked to southern New Mexico from all over the globe, creating an economic and tourism boost for surrounding communities as part of their attendance at the 2019 Spaceport America Cup. This year’s competition was the largest to date, with over 120 teams registered, including a large international presence from 14 different countries.
The weeklong event kicked off on June 18 at the Las Cruces Convention Center, where students displayed their rockets to judges and spectators, and had the opportunity to network with top commercial space companies and recruiters. From June 19–22, students competed, launching liquid, solid and hybrid rockets from Spaceport America’s Vertical Launch Area.
With over 90 rockets launched, the majority reaching their intended altitudes, this year marked more successful launches and increasing ingenuity from students, as well as continually improved experiences for spectators.
“We’re honored to have Spaceport America serve as the host site for the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering competition,” added Dan Hicks, CEO of Spaceport America. “This competition showcases some of the brightest minds of Universities from around the world, and we know that the rockets launched at the Spaceport America Cup are the result of months of hard work and planning. As evidenced by their teamwork, dedication, innovations, and tremendous successes this week, the future workforce of the World’s space industry sector is in good hands! We congratulate all of the 2019 Rocketeers and extend our deepest gratitude to the sponsors, volunteers, and those who traveled to New Mexico to be a part of the Spaceport America Cup.”
Following the final launch day on Saturday, June 22, students and spectators attended the 2019 Spaceport America Cup award ceremony at the Las Cruces Convention Center, featuring keynote speaker George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company. He related to the students that they are entering the workforce in such an exciting and perfect time in the Space Industry. He added that while Virgin Galactic will soon pilot the spaceship Unity to bring more astronauts into space; the students at this competition will soon enter the workforce to develop unique capabilities and be responsible for piloting the spaceship known as “Earth” into the future.
Competitors competed in various technical categories of design, payload, and performance objectives. The winner from each of the six categories then competed for the honor of the prestigious Spaceport America Cup, which demonstrates exceptional excellence of achieving their performance objectives. A complete list of this years winners is below:
Spaceport America Cup Champion:
University of Washington (Team 52), Seattle, Washington
Category Awards for the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition:
10K Commercial Of The Shelf Components:
First Place 10K COTS: University of Sydney (Team 06), Sydney, Australia
Second Place 10K COTS: ETH Zurich (Team 37), Zurich, Switzerland
10K Solid Rocket-Student Research and Developed Components:
First Place 10K Solid SRAD: The George Washington University (Team 01), Washington, DC
Second Place 10K Solid SRAD: West Virginia University (Team 19), Morgantown, West Virginia
10K Hybrid/Liquid Rocket-Student Research and Developed Components:
First Place 10K Hybrid/Liquid SRAD: Polytechnique Montreal (Team 40), Montreal, Canada
Second Place 10K Hybrid/Liquid SRAD: AGH University of Science and Technology (Team 02), Poland
30K Commercial Of The Shelf Components:
First Place 30K COTS: Georgia Institute of Technology (Team 24), Atlanta, Georgia
Second Place 30K COTS: ETS Montreal (Team 04), Montreal, Canada
30K Solid Rocket-Student Research and Developed Components:
First Place 30K Solid SRAD: University of Minnesota Twin Cities (Team 69), Minneapolis, Minnesota
Second Place 30K Solid SRAD: University of Minnesota – Duluth (Team 66), Duluth, Minnesota
30K Hybrid/Liquid Rocket-Student Research and Developed Components:
First Place 30K Hybrid/Liquid: University of Washington (Team 52), Seattle, Washington
Second Place 30K Hybrid/Liquid: University of Waterloo (Team 45), Waterloo, Canada
Payload Category Awards:
First Place: University of Louisville (Team 67), Louisville, Kentucky – Finely Engineered Folding Wing Autonomous UAV
Second Place: Stanford University (Team 29), Palo Alto, CA – Lysozyme Dialysis Crystallization Experiment
Third Place: The George Washington University (Team 1), Washington, DC – VIBE (Vibration Isolation B-field Experiment)
Honorable Mentions:
University of Akron (Team 68), Akron, Ohio - Surveillance System
Brigham Young University (Team 15), Provo, Utah – Cold Gas-Wind Rider System
West Virginia University (Team 19), Morgantown, West Virginia – Space Weather Thin Sat + STEM Partnership
University of Washington (Team 52), Seattle, Washington – Plasmo
University of Central Florida (Team 113), Orlando, Florida – Moondust Experiment
Clark College (Team 91), Vancouver, Washington – Ground Station + 3U Cubesat
Team Sportsmanship Award:
Winner: University of Waterloo (Team 45), Waterloo, Canada
Honorable Mention: University of Sydney (Team 06), Sydney, Australia
Team Spirit Award:
Winner: Samsun University (Team 103), Turkey
Honorable Mention: University of Wisconsin – Platteville (Team 25), Platteville, Wisconsin
Honorary Awards:
Jim Furfaro Award for Technical Excellence: AGH University of Science and Technology (Team 02), Poland
Dr. Gil Moore Award for Innovation: The George Washington University (Team 01), Washington, DC
Charles Hoult Award for Modeling & Simulation: Georgia Institute of Technology (Team 24), Atlanta, Georgia
James Barrowman Award for Flight Dynamics: University of Louisville (Team 67), Louisville, Kentucky
The Spaceport America Cup is an annual event that will be held each year during the third week of June. For more information visit spaceportamericacup.com.
For pictures and broll of the event visit the Spaceport America Media Center: https://www.spaceportamerica.com/media/
Photo/Video Credit: Spaceport America.
About Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA)
The Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) is a partner on the Spaceport America Cup and is a non-profit organization founded in 2003 for the purpose of fostering and promoting engineering knowledge and experience in the field of rocketry. ESRA's current focus is in the field of experimental sounding rocketry, which they define as between "experimental" or "research" high-power rockets and sounding rockets capable of achieving space altitude, generally defined as 100 km. Visit http://www.soundingrocket.org/ for more information.
About Spaceport America
Spaceport America is the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world. The FAA-licensed launch complex, situated on 18,000 acres adjacent to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, has a rocket friendly environment of 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace, low population density, a 12,000-foot spaceway, vertical launch complexes, and 340 days of sunshine and low humidity. Some of the most respected companies in the commercial space industry are customers at Spaceport America: Virgin Galactic, Boeing, UP Aerospace, EXOS Aerospace, HyperSciences, and SpinLaunch. Visit http://spaceportamerica.com and http://gatewaytospace.com for more information. Spaceport America is #NewMexicoTRUE.