An EPFL-designed rocket competes in the United States

Students from the EPFL Rocket Team are preparing for takeoff at the Spaceport America Cup. Last year, the team came in eighth out of more than one hundred participants. After nearly two years of work, "Project Matterhorn," designed by the thirty students from the EPFL Rocket Team, is ready to compete at the 2018 Spaceport America Cup, which will be held from 19 to 23 June in the New Mexico desert. This competition, which pits teams from universities around the globe against each other, is still not very well known on this side of the Atlantic. This year, only two European teams will take part, one from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and one from EPFL. Last year, students from these two schools and the School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD) competed together as one team and came in eighth out of the 116 teams taking part. For the competition, teams have to design, build and launch a rocket that can reach a set altitude as accurately as possible.