Students of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow from the AGH Space Systems team won 1st place in the Spaceport America Cup 2021 competition in the 10k category – SRAD – Hybrid / Liquid & Other (rocket designed and manufactured by students, flight at a height of 10,000 feet, hybrid or liquid fuel drive) and 2nd place for the developed research load in the SDL Payload Challenge competition.  

This year’s world’s largest rocket engineering competition was held on June 18-20 remotely. 75 world teams took part in it.

The Skylark rocket with hybrid propulsion is the fourth construction of AGH Space Systems taking part in the competition. In the previous competition in 2019, students took 2nd place in the same category, with their PROtotype.

Skylark is the successor to the PROtotype project. Development work on the new rocket lasted two years. It was prepared to fly to an altitude of 10,000 feet (approximately 3 kilometres) and to carry a payload of 4 kilograms. The advanced system ensures a safe return to the ground with the test load and the possibility of multiple uses of the rocket. The electronics system developed by AGH students allows for the measurement and analysis of data during the flight and communication with the ground station.