The University of Texas at El Paso's Rocket Team, the Sun City Summit, has notched an impressive second-place win in their category at the International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC). The event, which was hosted this summer in Midland, TX, saw the UTEP team achieve seventh place overall among 145 teams, with their rocket, Sandstorm, reaching a remarkable 29,541 feet at a velocity exceeding one and a half times the speed of sound. This performance marked the peak of their four-year trajectory in rocket design and competition.
As obtained by UTEP Newsfeed, team project manager and master’s student in aerospace engineering, Pedro Ferreira da Silva, expressed pride in their achievement, saying, “Sandstorm is our most complex and best-performing rocket ever and I am extremely proud of the amazing job our students did.” The team's success at IREC was to showcase their engineering aptitude and their ability to resiliently work together.
UTEP's team competed in the 30,000-foot commercial off-the-shelf bracket, challenging students not only on launch height but also on the logistical aspects like the number of rocket stages and the type of propulsion fuel used. The Sun City Summit Rocket Team managed to surpass other Texas institutions, including The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, with their hands-on design and grit throughout the multi-day competition.
Adrian Vicario, a junior studying aerospace engineering at UTEP and the avionics team leader, said being part of the rocket team helped him quickly learn valuable skills outside the conventional classroom setting. He told UTEP Newsfeed, “At IREC, and in the preparation leading up to it, we worked as a team to design, build, launch, and recover our rocket successfully,” highlighting the practical learning experience the competition has provided.
The rocket's name, Sandstorm, was inspired by an actual sandstorm that disrupted last year's event at Spaceport America. Interestingly, this year's IREC also experienced a sandstorm that caused some damage to the launch site facilities but did not deter the teams from proceeding with the competition.
Post-competition, the UTEP team spent time aiding their fellow competitors by distributing water and snacks. They also embarked on a rescue mission to find another team that was believed to be lost in the desert while retrieving their rocket, only to find them in their tent all along, as reported by UTEP Newsfeed.
Looking forward, the leadership of UTEP's team will be handed over to student Damian Rangel. The team aspires to further enhance its design and is eyeing new challenges, including the newly announced 45,000-foot multi-stage category at IREC. The College of Engineering's dean, Kenith Meissner, Ph.D., endorsed the team's collaborative achievements, “They’ve demonstrated what’s possible when classroom learning is paired with hands-on design, teamwork, and grit. The success of the Sun City Summit Rocket Team reflects the level of talent, innovation, and perseverance that defines UTEP engineers," as per UTEP Newsfeed.
