Experimental Sounding Rocket Association

Get Ready for Madness in Midland Texas

Over the last 4 days, members of the ESRA Volunteer team, NMSU Rocketry Team and Texas Tech Rocketry Team completed a great migration of ESRA operations equipment. Welcome to our new home in TEXAS

This is the final week to order COTS Solid motors from AEROTECH and WILDMAN. To receive your motor onsite in Midland, you must purchase your motor from either Wildman Hobbies or directly from Aerotech no later than this Friday! DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST DAY!

ESRA is attempting a major effort this week in moving all of our resources from New Mexico to Texas. For anyone living in or near Las Cruces or Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Thursday, Feb 27th and Friday, Feb 28th are the two days we need your help moving. For anyone living in or near the Midland, Texas area, Saturday March 1st and Sunday, March 2nd we will also need assistance. We simply NEED BODIES to help us move our equipment to our new launch site. Food and ESRA Swag will be provided for all volunteers! Please send an email to [email protected] if you can help us!

ESRA is proud to announce the selection of the 2025 ESRA IREC Mission Patch! This amazing patch was selected out of a pool of over a dozen design submissions. Congrats to Emre Kilic with the TOBB ETU Rocketry team! A $250 prize will be sent to Emre for such amazing work!

A new event for Rocketry Teams in Mexico from the folks with Tripoli Mexico! October 10-12 Registration is open NOW

Turkey's PREMIER Rocket Competition! NOW with an International category for teams not from Turkey. https://lnkd.in/gE4HHRXD

At tonight's ESRA Board meeting, the decision to host the 2025 IREC has been decided. The site will be Midland, Texas. Additional details will be added throughout the weekend on HeroX as well as soundingrocket.org.

Thank you all for your patience as we consider new sites to enhance the event and engineering challenge in 2025. At present, we have multiple good new site options, but each requires federal permitting. Given the U.S. holidays and upcoming change of administration, we anticipate permitting feedback no earlier than January 20. Multiple congresspeople are involved to aid this process and secure the event for their states and districts. Hosting City: Must demonstrate the ability to host an event of this size, be within 3 hours of an international airport, have sufficient accommodation options (Hotel, Airbnb, VRBO, or dorm rooms) for 2,500 attendees, and have local chamber of commerce support. Convention Center: It needs to comfortably accommodate 2,500 people, including space for poster and rocket displays, sponsor exhibit booths, flight readiness reviews, podium sessions, and vendor rooms. Awards Ceremony Facility: Preferably a basketball arena-style facility with stadium seating. Launch Site: Must have a 50-100k waiver, 5 square miles of launch/recovery space with minimal vegetation and no trees, a large area for team prep tents and ESRA Operations, and the ability to store containers on-site year-round. Sites Identified: Cedar City, Utah: ESRA visited Cedar City, Utah, known as Festival City, is experienced in hosting large events. The Southern Utah University campus provides large meeting spaces and awards ceremony facilities that meet our requirements. The launch site requires land use permits from the BLM and airspace permits from the FAA. Midland, Texas: ESRA will visit Midland on 12/30. Our meetings with Spaceport Midland executives and the local chamber of commerce suggest that this site will meet our objectives. This site already has an FAA waiver but will require updating to a higher altitude. We'll provide an update after our visit. Spaceport America: Despite challenges scaling the event, Spaceport America has been a great partner and the event may return there in 2025. If the event returns, categories and altitudes will be identical to 2024. We expect to finalize the site selection by the end of January and apologize for any inconvenience caused. Next Updates: 1. We will provide an update on the Midland Spaceport after our visit on 30 December. 2. We will announce a Town Hall meeting in early January. 3. We will provide permitting updates at the end of January. Permitting status is the key information needed to finalize site selection. We recognize we must balance the benefits of a new site against the costs of delay. Thank you for your patience and we will continue to provide updates. Closing: Thank you to the teams for their patience. The ESRA staff is dedicated to enhancing your experience and increasing the engineering challenges each year. It is my great privilege to make this happen. Wishing you and your families happiness and prosperity this holiday season and in the new year.

Tufts Rocketry HODGE Preliminary Design Review - Thank you to the team for posting their PDR.