Skyward student association wins EuRoC 2022

The students from Politecnico win competition for experimental sounding rockets

The Skyward Experimental Rocketry team from the Politecnico di Milano won the "European Rocketry Challenge - EuRoC 2022" international competition, taking first place in the overall ranking and also winning two other technical prizes. During the competition, which took place in Pont de Sor, Portugal, from 11 to 18 October, student teams from all over Europe put themselves to the test by launching the experimental sounding rockets they had designed, with the aim of reaching a target altitude.

After their second place in last year's edition, the students of the Skyward team returned to Portugal more determined than ever, and after a spectacular flight, the rocket named "Pyxis" carried them to victory. The prize was awarded – as the jury's motivation states – "to the team that has displayed excellence across the board in all aspects of the competition, honoring an overall exceptional and well-balanced effort without cutting back on any of one of the competition aspects, be it technical documentation, design implementation, team effort, or flight performance, thus identifying a truly remarkable effort and achievement”.

In addition to the overall victory, the Skyward team also won other awards: the award for the best technical report, and the Anacom RF Award, for the optimisation of the radio frequency system for telemetry transceiver.

Lamberto Duò, the rector's delegate for education and counselling and representative for international competitions, says:

International competitions are challenges that allow students to directly apply the knowledge they have received during their education in the field. They are a unique opportunity to develop the ability to design in a team, to practise problem solving and to engage with colleagues from other departments but also from other universities. I am happy that all the passion shown over the years has enabled Skyward students to achieve this very important result at international level.

Founded in 2012, Skyward is a student association of the Politecnico di Milano, created with the aim of designing and building experimental sounding rockets and providing students with a field experience which can create a synergy between the knowledge acquired in the classroom and technical and soft skills required in the world of work.