The University of Sydney Rocketry Team will represent Australia in the 2019 Spaceport America Cup this week.

They are the first Australian team to attend and compete in the competition – an annual university rocketry competition to be held in New Mexico, US.

This year’s event has attracted over 100 university teams from around the world.

Each team will be launching their student-built and designed rockets in a race for the sky.

Spaceport America Cup is comprised of several categories that allow student teams to compete based on varying altitude targets and a range of propulsion systems.

The University of Sydney team has entered its custom-built rocket Silvereye in the 10,000 feet commercial off-the-shelf category, meaning the team’s rocket will be launched with a commercial solid rocket motor with a target altitude exceeding 3km.

During a recent test launch in regional NSW, Silvereye soared to a record height of over 10,000 feet on its first attempt. The team replicated the flight at the Australian Universities Rocket Competition held in Queensland earlier this year. 

Named Silvereye after the Australian bird, the 23kg rocket has reached a maximum speed of over 1,000 km/h while carrying a miniature satellite.

Safe, reliable and customisable

“Silvereye is able to fly any standard 2U sized CubeSat allowing us to achieve a variety of missions such as test flying student-built satellites or even performing low gravity experiments,” explains the team’s Chief Engineer and Aerospace Engineering student Mitchell Galletly.

"We have used a systems engineering approach to design our rocket from the ground up in order for it to be safe, reliable, and customisable,” he said.

Although no other Australian team has ever entered the Spaceport America Cup, the team is confident they will excel in their category while representing Australia on the international stage.

“Silvereye is constructed from a custom-designed and manufactured carbon fibre airframe and uses a solid propellant to achieve speeds approaching the speed of sound,” Galletly said.

Team Vice-President and Aerospace Engineering student Clara Morris said competing in this year’s Spaceport America Cup is the result of the team’s long and continuous effort.

“Silvereye is a culmination of more than a year’s worth of detailed design, analysis, construction and testing conducted by undergraduate students,” she said.

“It has been tremendously rewarding to extend our knowledge outside of the classroom and gain practical experience as a team of engineers.”

The team has already been commended for their recent launches and for successfully entering the US competition. 

"Silvereye will be the first Australian university rocket to compete in the Spaceport America Cup, which demonstrates the team’s determination and skill,” said former NASA astronaut and Lawrence Hargrave Adjunct Professor of Aeronautical Engineering, Professor Gregory Chamitoff.

“I’m really impressed with the quality of workmanship and professionalism of this entire team. I’ve never seen such attention to detail from any student team and it will serve them well during the competition,” he said. 

Silvereye is the second high-powered rocket to be fully designed, built and launched by the University of Sydney Rocketry Team following the launch of their first high-powered rocket, Wedgetail, in 2017.