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About

Overview

The UK’s space launch sector is expanding rapidly, with several spaceports under development and licensed to support both orbital and sub-orbital missions. This growing infrastructure has spurred the emergence of new rocket companies aiming to meet the increasing demand for reliable, domestic launch services.

UKSEDS created the National Rocketry Championship with the aim of providing university students and apprentices who have had no or limited experience in the field of rocketry hands-on experience designing, building and launching a rocket. In partnership with the United Kingdom Rocketry Association, we are delighted to host a competition day at Midlands Rocketry Club.

The Challenge

Teams are challenged with designing, building and launching a mid-power rocket with the primary goal of reaching an apogee of 2500ft. Motor selection will be limited to ensure a fair competition between teams. Teams must also have a payload on their rocket, to be more accurate to real rocket launches. Teams will also be required to submit technical reports detailing their designs.

History

Founded in 2013, the National Rocketry Championship is our oldest competition. Given it is, therefore, built on a strong foundation of documentation, it comes at no surprise that it is UKSEDS’ most popular competition. After all, who doesn’t think rockets are a fun hobby!

Past Winners

2023-2024
2023-2024

UCL Rocket

This year saw the 10th anniversary of UKSEDS's National Rocketry Championships. For the first time, we introduced an in-person competition day at Midlands Rocketry Club which saw 21 teams and over 150 participants attend alongside 3 sponsors, mentors and even a burger van! This year's winners were UCL Rocket with their rocketry titled "Murphy". They were a team of first year students that designed a rocket with a novel airbrake design and lego mini-figure astronaut.

Special mentions:
Second place goes to Team Invictus from the University of Birmingham Dubai.

Third place goes to Team HIonization from BristolSEDS.
2022-2023
2022-2023

UCL Rocket

This year's competition was our biggest yet, with 48 teams initially registering. The winners were UCL Rocket. Their team of first year mechanical engineers managed to satisfy all the project stakeholders. Their rocket, 'The Spare Minimum', featured a quail egg payload in the nose code, an Easy Mini flight computer and GPS for data collection, and a unique 3D printed fin can with concave clipped delta fins. The first iteration was launched successfully and deployed its chute, but was lost in the field. However, they were able to retrieve two thirds of ‘The Spare Minimum’ and its flight data thanks to its GPS and panic alarm.

Special mentions:
Second place goes to Yellow Jackets from the University of Sheffield.
Third place goes to Team Frogs from the University of Sheffield.

Other special mentions went to Peryton Space White, Team Chrysolelea, Project Theia and Team Zephyrus.
2021-2022
2021-2022

Team Gyrocket

Fortunately, this year's competition was back to normal after COVID-19. The winners were team Gyrocket from the University of Bristol. Their distinctive orange rocket's payload used an autorotation-based alternative recovery system. Two spring-loaded carbon fibre blades popped out of the top of the body tube instead of a parachute. This was controlled by an autogyro-inspired direct control mechanism to allow for it to guide itself autonomously back to the launch pad. They also made a great video for their awards day presentation that documented their whole design, build and launch process.
2021-2022
2021-2022

Team Unspecific Impulse

This year we had 2 joint winners. Firstly, Team Unspecific Impulse from the University of Birmingham. We were particularly impressed by their demonstration of systems engineering through clear requirements in their design and build report. They also had an impressive custom flight computer that was powered by an Arduino Nano Every.
2021-2022
2021-2022

Sunride Society Team

Our other winner was the Sunride Society Team from the University of Sheffield. They reached an impressive apogee of 1474m which exceeded the previous year's winners. Their payload measured NO2 and CO2 alongside pressure, temperature and humidity.
2019-2020
2019-2020

Cranfield Space Academy

This year’s competition was a bit different due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Normally teams have to design, build and launch a rocket, however, due to the closure of rocketry launch sites across the UK and students returning to their homes across the world, this was no longer possible.
Instead, teams had to take a deep dive into their design process. Their designs were judged on:

  • Innovation
  • Simulation data
  • Communication of design
  • OpenRocket altitude
  • Design justifications

It was a close call with only 2.7 points separating the top three teams but in the end there can only be one winner which was:
Cranfield Space Agency from Cranfield University.
Their rocket “Message in a bottle” reached a theoretical altitude of 1121m on a 2-grain Cessaroni G126 ‘White Thunder’ motor. Interesting features of their rocket were its 3D printed fin-can and nose cone with an integrated payload of a Raspberry Pi Zero and camera plus a bottle with handwritten messages in it, hence their rocket name, this also acted as ballast to shift their centre of gravity forward. We really loved this touch of ingenuity and fun in their design.

Special mentions:
Second place goes to Space:Exe from University of Exeter.
Third place goes to Loughborough Space Society from Loughborough University.
2028-2019
2028-2019

Enillwyr

It was a close call with two teams only points away from each other but Team Enillwyr from the University of South Wales came out on top as the winners for 2018/19!
Their rocket called The Element reached an altitude of 909m on a 2-grain Cessaroni G126 ‘White Thunder’ motor. Interesting features of their rocket included its 3D printed fin-can and the integrated payload of a Pnut altimeter into the nose cone to enable a shorter and lighter body tube for their rocket reducing weight and adding stability.

Special mentions:
Second place goes to Team Oxford Brookes Rockets from Oxford Brookes University
Third place goes to Team High Flyers from Cardiff University.
2017-2018
2017-2018

UWEBAR

The champions for this year were UWEBAR, from the University of the West of England. We loved their 3D printed fin can with removable fins and custom boattail and unique parachute mounting method. In addition, they 3D printed a nose cone which housed their avionics which included a barometer and GPS which measured altitude separately and were both verified as accurate using a standard flight altimeter. Flying to an altitude of 539m with a Cesaroni 107G83-14A ‘Blue Streak’ motor.
February 2, 2014
February 2, 2014

SPARK

SPARK from from Keele University won the Championship for this year! Their rocket, named ‘The Flying Squirrel’, flew on a Pro Cessaroni G250-Vmax and reached an altitude of 227m. They also designed a 3D printed fin can which included three rotating cylinders to produce a Magnus effect to convert the energy of the air moving past their rocket to generate a greater thrust.
2015-2016
2015-2016

Cranfield Space Program

The winners of the 2015/2016 competition was Cranfield Space Program with their rocket, 'Rocketry McRocketface' which was launched to a winning apogee of 828 meters.
2014-2015
2014-2015

UBSEDS

The winning team was UBSEDS from the University of Bristol! We also want to give an honorable mention to CranSEDS from Cranfield University and GCA Rocketeers from Greig City Academy. These two teams put in a considerable amount of effort into the competition but unfortunately due to no fault of their own never managed to launch their rockets.
2013-2014
2013-2014

StrathSEDS

The winner of the inaugural National Rocketry Championship was StrathSEDS from Strathclyde University. Their rocket, aptly named ‘JUST TESTING’, reached an altitude of 987.6m, employing a unique deployment mechanism.

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