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ESRA News & Updates

2023 Spaceport America Cup Teams Announced!

10/28/2022

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Congratulations to all of the selected teams.  ESRA and Spaceport America look forward to working with you over the next 8 months! NEW MEXICO BOUND!!!!

https://www.soundingrocket.org/2023-sa-cup.html

Out of 175 submitted applications, 158 teams have been selected to compete in the 2023 Spaceport America Cup.

HeroX, as well as soundingrocket.org website and our social media sites will all celebrate this announcement.

Based on feedback from student teams, ESRA will provide an email with details as to why a team's application was declined. This information will be emailed directly to the contacts listed in the application submission.  

Typically, application are declined for one or more of the following reasons:

- Poor overall quality of the application, lacking detail, incorrect or missing data
- Team lacked sufficient experience to safely design, build and launch a rocket in that specific category
- Team did not follow rules and regulations or standards set forth in the DTEG

For teams who were declined, it is highly recommended that you seek other opportunities to compete and/or launch in your region.  The number of international rocketry competitions has "skyrocketed" over the last 3 years.  Latin America, Australia, Canada, Europe, Turkey, Mexico etc. are all fabulous opportunities to gain critical experience and expertise to enhance your application for the 2024 Spaceport America Cup.  In the US, teams should look to compete in the Argonia Cup or any of the great events at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) site in southern California.

For those teams who will be competing this year, ESRA is working hard to make this not only the largest, but the best Cup event ever held.  Over the next few weeks, there will be many updates and requests to student team leaders.  Please respond to these as quickly as possible to ensure your team is 100% prepared.

For international teams seeking a formal acceptance letters, please send a request to general.info@esrarocket.org

June is only a short 8 months away.  Get busy with your designing, building and testing!

-The ESRA Team
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Registration for the 2023 Spaceport America Cup opens next week on Oct 1, 2022!

9/27/2022

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Over 1,700 students representing 150 institutions from all across the world will gather in Southern New Mexico for the annual Spaceport America Cup. Drawn by the opportunity to collaborate and compete at a world-class spaceport facility, these student teams bring some of the most innovative and exciting rocket projects that will fly to either 10,000 or 30,000 feet.

Part academic conference and part design-build-fly style competition, the Spaceport America Cup has something to offer students, faculty, industry representatives, and aerospace enthusiasts alike.

Applications will be accepted beginning on Monday, Oct 1st, 2022 and closing on Friday, October 16th, 2022. Applications can be submitted at:
herox.com/SpaceportAmericaCup2023
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2022 Spaceport America Cup Revised Scoring

8/7/2022

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Upon further review, we found a number of discrepancies in the awarding of the efficient launch bonus.  Unfortunately, because we had conflicting information between the launch spotter and recovery records, it was impossible to sort out the differences.  This issue has both helped some teams and disadvantaged others.

Accordingly, and to be fair to all teams, we have decided to zero out that bonus category.  By and large, this made no change to the category winners, with one exception, where the runner-up did change.  Rather than remove the runner-up trophy from that school, we have decided to award a 2nd runner-up trophy in the 10K-SRAD-Hybrid/Liquid to McGill University.
 
Revised scores are posted on the Events page.
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2022 Spaceport America Cup Lessons Learned

7/15/2022

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From the ESRA President's Desk:

This year's competition was filled with many firsts and challenges we've never faced before as an organization.  We had more teams than ever in the history of IREC.  We had our first significant weather delay losing over a full day in getting rockets into the air.  We faced logistical challenges that meant, to preserve the integrity of the competition, a delay in announcing the final awards winners until all data was collected and verified.  All in all, while it was a challenging event for the teams and for ESRA, I'm proud at what we've all accomplished together.  We're already taking these lessons to heart for 2023 and looking forward to an even stronger competition!

On an additional note, several hybrid teams were faced with last minute insurance issues.  I want to personally assure you that ESRA is very committed to fostering and supporting all hybrid teams to the best of our ability.  We are taking steps to resolve this issue going forward.  There have been some rumors that our friends at the Tripoli Rocketry Association (TRA) were a cause for the delays.  That information is absolutely incorrect, in fact if it had not been for the support of TRA (and many ESRA volunteers are members of TRA already) and their expertise in the field of amateur high power rocketry, we simply could not safely conduct the competition. 

A huge thank you goes out TRA and also to the National Association of Rocketry (NAR) for their strong support and guidance to ESRA for Spaceport America Cup.  We couldn't do it without you.

Go nominal!
Cliff Olmsted
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2022 Spaceport America Cup Results Updates!

7/15/2022

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Spaceport America Cup wrapped up in the 3rd week of June and the online awards ceremony for the category winners and the winner of the Genesis Cup Trophy for the overall Spaceport America Cup winner is coming soon!

You can catch the 2022 Spaceport America Cup brought to you by Sierra Space, Awards Ceremony, LIVE on YouTube this Saturday, July 16, 2022, at noon MT.
Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_vIuR4516Q
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2022 Spaceport America Cup Application Deadline is October 15!

10/14/2021

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ESRA and Spaceport America are looking forward to the 2022 Spaceport America Cup after we have taken a hiatus from in-person competitions for the past 2 years!  The deadline is soon, October 15!  Be sure to apply on the 2022 HeroX website at www.herox.com/SpaceportAmericaCup2022 and we'll look forward to reviewing your applications!
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2021 Virtual Spaceport America Cup Winners!

6/20/2021

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ESRA is proud to announce the winners of the 2021 Virtual Spaceport America Cup!  By all accounts it was an excellent competition (short of actually being together in person).  Head over to our events page to see the results.

Thank you to all 75 teams who participated!

Also, dates for the 2022 competition have been set!  We'll see you June 21-25 in Las Cruces!
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2021 Virtual Spaceport America Cup Tickets are Live!

4/19/2021

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We've been very busy behind the scenes gearing up for an exciting virtual competition as well as, for the first time every, lining up a series of fantastic keynote speakers and technical forum topics for this special 3 day event!

Visit https://www.accelevents.com/e/2021VirtualSpaceportAmericaCup to purchase a team or general admission ticket!  All competing teams must purchase at least 1 team ticket which includes a block of 10 individual tickets valid for all 3 days of the event. Additional team or individual student tickets can be purchased for larger teams.

General Admission tickets are for interested public, friends, and family.  All tickets are valid for the full 3 days of the event! 
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Official Spaceport America Cup 2021 Participants

10/28/2020

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This is it. We know you've been waiting, and ESRA has been working late into the evenings reviewing all team applications.  Congratulations to the 150 teams selected to compete in the 2021 Spaceport America Cup!
 
The complete list of teams and team IDs is available on the Spaceport America Cup 2021 event page.
 
Below is the breakdown of team locations and competition categories.  This year, 125 teams are joining us again from last year's canceled event while we also welcome 25 new teams.  All together, 63% of the student teams are from colleges and universities across the United States while 36% are international from across the planet.  ESRA along with Spaceport America, Space Dynamics Laboratory, our sponsors, and our vendors cannot wait to see what you bring to the competition.  Let's get started!
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2021 Spaceport America Cup and Tripoli Rocketry Association

10/13/2020

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Summary
The Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA), Spaceport America, and the Tripoli Rocketry Association (TRA) are now formally working together to continue to improve overall flight safety and efficient flight operations at the annual Spaceport America Cup.  In addition, student teams flying in the Commercial Off the Shelf(COTS) and Student Research and Design SOLID(SRAD SOLID) categories will begin flying under TRA flight code. Details of how this impacts competing teams are described below.

Background
TRA, Spaceport America, and ESRA all share common goals to create safe and exciting launch opportunities for the next generation of Aerospace engineers as they progress from hobby to industry environments.  Our organizations are highly aligned: ESRA provides the educational framework and administration of the world’s largest international collegiate rocketry event; TRA provides the safety/flight operations framework, incredible membership expertise and an amazing insurance program; and Spaceport America provides a world-class facility and support. Stated simply, we have assembled outstanding partners to build and safely operate the greatest rocketry competition in history.

The Spaceport America Cup has relied on the TRA safety code and membership expertise/guidance to create a safe launching environment for its event since 2017. The Cup’s Range Safety and Launch Operations teams are filled with a significant number of Senior Level 3 high power rocketry experts (>30). A growing number of competing teams utilize TRA prefectures for mentorship, certification flights and test flights of their competition projects.  

Benefits:

  • Student Team Liability Insurance - In previous years, students were either insured by their university or through a 3rd party insurance provider. By becoming a TRA student member and following the TRA Safety code, the student is insured by TRA’s insurance program. TRA insurance covers COTS and SRAD solid flights. TRA insurance DOES NOT cover SRAD hybrid and liquid teams or flights.

  • Student teams will have improved access to TRA mentors, certifications, and launch sites - TRA has a growing list of US and international prefectures with active launch sites. Student teams are highly recommended to engage with their local TRA prefectures for mentoring, certification flights and additional launch experience.

Tripoli Flight Requirements for COTS and SRAD Solid Categories:

  1. Certified Level 3 Flyer of Record (3 options)
    1. HIGHLY Recommended - each team will secure a Level 3 certified TRA or NAR (COTS Only) Senior mentor who works closely with the team and is present at the launch. Student teams ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to subsidize the travel expenses of their mentor, to and from the event.
    2. Recommended - team will have a TRA or NAR (COTS Only) Level 3 certified student member at the launch.
    3. Last option (only for international teams who do not have access to TRA prefectures) - ESRA Range Safety team members, who are Level 3 certified TRA or NAR (COTS Only) Senior members, will virtually mentor the team throughout the year and will be present for the final flight safety inspections and launch.


  2. TRA (or NAR) Student Membership
    1. TRA Student membership is $10 per year per student. NAR is $25.
    2. The HPR Level 3 certified student or mentor shall lead and supervise all launch preparation, pad loading and recovery activities. A maximum of 5 additional team members who are TRA or NAR(COTS only) student members may be on the pad loading team, recovery team, or working with the energetics (motor, ejection charges).  These student team members do not have to be HPR certified but must be TRA or NAR(COTS only) student members.  All students are highly recommended to secure HPR certification.
    3. Link to the TRA Student Membership application

      TRA Membership


Frequently Asked Questions:
  1. Why are we making this change?
    One of ESRA’s primary goals is to foster a healthy engineering competition by conducting what has become the Spaceport America Cup.  Our desire is also to find ways to minimize costs to student teams.  Put simply, there has been no widely available and cost effective insurance solution for student teams.  Working with TRA and formally adopting the requirements above permits teams to be covered by the TRA insurance policy for COTS and SRAD SOLID rockets.  Hybrid and liquid teams must still work with their universities to find suitable insurance policies.

  2. Why are hybrids and liquid rockets excluded from this policy change?
    TRA brings world-class expertise in the area of COTS and SRAD SOLID rocket motors.  The policies and rules for solid motors are well established with a robust system of mentors and specific certification levels.  Liquid and hybrid rockets are inherently more complex with dangers and risks that are substantially different from solid motors.  No hybrid/liquid rocket organization yet exists that has standardized on safety rules and established formal certifications based on levels of expertise and experience.  ESRA is committed to continuing to search for viable means to support the establishment of such an organization.

  3. Is it acceptable if an international team (COTS or SRAD solid category) has identified a Level 3 certified Tripoli or NAR (COTS only) mentor who is not an ESRA Range Safety team member?
    ABSOLUTELY YES!  As long as that the L3 certified mentor participates (virtually) throughout the design, manufacturing, testing of the project and attends (in person) the event with the team.​
esra_tripoli_spaceport_america_mou_announcement_to_student_participants.pdf
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