UK
Rocketry
Hub
About
Welcome to the UK Rocketry Hub!
🚀 Run by UKSEDS for the UK Launch Education Working Group
🌌 UK rocketry competitions information
🎓 Rocketry training
📚 Educational resources
🛒 Signposting to recommended suppliers
🌟 Supported by the United Kingdom Rocketry Association
🛠️ Promoting safe and responsible practices
Is your society missing from this map? Drop us an email at [email protected]!
competitions
Pre-University — Entry level
UKROC
The UK Youth Rocketry Challenge (UKROC) is a great way to engage the next generation of engineers with practical experience of building and executing complex missions.
Teams of 3-6 students aged 11-18 years old.
This is an exciting way to learn more about maths and science, with the UK winners getting the chance to compete against teams from France, USA and Japan at the International Finals.
The UK’s European Space Education Resources Office (ESERO-UK) organises the UK CanSat
Competition. The winner of the UK competition is invited to attend the ‘Space Engineer for a Day’
learning and celebration event with the other winning national teams, hosted by the European Space Agency at their ESTEC site in the Netherlands, 20-22 June 2024.
Pre-University — Entry level
ESERO-UK CANSATS
National Rocketry Championship
UNIVERSITY — ENTRY LEVEL
Teams of 1-15 students 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 a brief technical report detailing their design and build for evaluation by our skilled team of industry experts.
University — Advanced
Mach24
Mach-24 Launch Competition encompasses the high-level vision for an advanced high-powered rocketry competition within the UK, targeted primarily at University teams with some previous rocketry experience.The end goal is to enable students to design, build and operate large rockets (impulse equivalent to a level 1 & level 2 certification) and technical payloads in a competitive environment.
Providing student teams with:
- Access to a rocket engine hot-fire test
Expert mentoring and guidance
Cold flow testing and training
- and more!
University — Advanced
UK Race To Space
training
rocketry 101
ENTRY LEVEL
A beginner-level interactive training course, written for UKSEDS’ Project Odyssey with the support of the United Kingdom Rocketry Association. Perfect for anyone looking to get into model rocketry. This course is open to everyone, not just UKSEDS members.
Resources
United Kingdom Rocketry Association
UKRA have a great website that includes their safety code, guidance to launching, guides and much more! They also run a mentoring scheme called Team Project Support (TPS).
British Model Flying Association
The BMFA provide insurance cover through their membership for any flights confirming to the UKRA Safety Code. This provides world wide liability cover for claims up to £25M
Project Odyssey
ENTRY LEVEL
Students and apprentices across the UK are increasingly participating in rocketry activities. Whilst UKSEDS National Rocketry Championship uses G class motors which require no UKRA license, high power competitions such as Mach, EuRoC and Spaceport America Cup allow for solid rocket motors that require UKRA L1 and above licences.
UKSEDS has identified a lack of students undertaking their UKRA qualifications and instead they are skipping to high power motors without the necessary experience. Project Odyssey is UKSEDS’s solution. The idea is to provide an opportunity to gain the required experience to use as evidence for a UKRA L1 whilst providing exciting challenges that most students will have never attempted.
UK Rocketry Research, Training and Teaching
R2T2
R2T2 has the purpose of delivering PhDs with both academic and skills-based elements, providing students with the opportunity to participate in the practical aspects of rocketry and spend time in industry.
OpenRocket
OpenRocket is a free, fully featured model rocket simulator that allows you to design and simulate your rockets before building and flying them.
Thrust Curve
Here you can find data for commercial model and high-power rocket motors usable with rocket simulation programs for flight prediction. The certification organizations test commercial motors and certify them for hobby use. This site organizes data on those motors and provides simulator files.
Suppliers
Wizard Rockets
UK Aerotech motor supplier, rocket kits and parts. We stock a variety of Model Rocket kits including Rocketarium, LOC PML and Estes as well as all you would need to scratch build your own creation.
Rockets and Things
UK Cesaroni motor supplier, rocket kits and parts. Over 25 years supplying the UK model rocketry community with everything from the smallest model rocket to the largest high power rockets as well as engines from 1/4 A to O with eveything else you need to make the model rocket hobby enjoyable and safe..
Black Cat Rocketry
Parts and kits. Here at Black Cat Rocketry we just love rockets. But sometimes its hard to get the parts that you want when you want them. Our goal at Black Cat Rocketry is to provide a European base of manufacturing for rocketry components. Thus reducing the need to import parts from the US and elsewhere.
Euro Space Technology
Cesaroni and Aerotech motors, parts and kits. EuroSpaceTechnology® was formed in the Netherlands to serve the European Professional and Hobby rocketry community with high quality systems, parts and services.
Sierrafox Hobbies
Cesaroni and Aerotech motors, parts and kits. SierraFox Hobbies specializes in model rocketry and high-power rocketry. Since more than 15 years, we have been serving the rocketry community in Italy, in Europe and in other Countries.
Model Rocket Shop
Estes motors, kits and parts. Our mission is to get or keep you flying! As a result we have a wide range of items from beginner sets with everything included, through to advanced high power rockets for expert skill levels to construct. We also stock loads of parts so you can build you own exactly how you want it.
Clubs
United Kingdom Rocketry Association
The United Kingdom Rocketry Association (UKRA) promotes and represents high power, medium power and model rocketry in the United Kingdom for amateur research, educational and recreational purposes. UKRA is also the specialist technical body to the BMFA with responsibilities for High Power Rocketry.
EARS - East Anglia Rocketry Society
The East Anglian Rocketry Society have a flying site to the west of Cambridge and hold regular flying events on the first Sunday of the month from March to December. EARS also run the BIG EARS 2 day event in May. See their website for details.
MRC - Midlands Rocketry Club
Midland Rocketry fly rockets on A to J motors every 2nd Sunday of the month at their large site near Twycross. They are friendly and welcome new flyers, youth groups or the seasoned flyers equally. They host a national weekend event in October every year. See their website for more details.
FOG - Fins Over Gwent
Fins Over Gwent fly from their site at Redwick on the Gwent levels. Attendance is open to all BMFA and UKRA members.
SARA - Scottish Aeronautics & Rocketry Association
Scottish Aeronautics & Rocketry Association. Based in the West of Scotland, caters for everything from 1/2 A to M class. Regular meetings held most months at their Fairlie Moor launch site -home of the IRW high power launches.
Working Group
The UK Launch Education Working Group was established in early 2023 by the Royal Aeronautical Society Space (RAeS) Group – Early Careers Subcommittee.
The group's aim:
To allow for collaboration on and alignment of activities focused on developing skills that will benefit both the UK Launch segment and the wider space sector.
The group's three main areas of focus:
● Influence accreditation at organisations such as RAeS to:
○ Increase the awareness by students of the broad skillset and knowledge base
required in UK launch (operations, safety, licensing etc.)
○ Improve space propulsion and launch education within uni curricula
● Coordinate undergrad with postgrad training via R2T2 etc
● Combine and coordinate outreach efforts for schools/youth groups and bid for
funding to enable a coordinated approach
● Create a network of mentors around the UK from industry through to undergrads and
school children to build the skills pipeline needed
● Enable student access to (and provide training on) safe engine testing and rocket
launching on UK soil, making the most of available facilities around the UK and
working with CAA and regulators to make this possible
● Coordinate and collaborate on current and future launch related competitions,
ensuring interaction and a ‘pipeline’ between events/competitions
● Work towards a high-powered, high-altitude UK rocket launch competition
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