European Rocketry Challenge 2026 sees student teams secure top honors

Student rocket teams from Greece and the Czech Republic achieved significant success at the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC) 2026 held in Portugal.

The Czech team, CTU Space Research, secured first place in the Hybrid 3,000 m category with their rocket, Andromeda 2, which reached an altitude of 3,266 meters. They also earned third place in the overall competition rankings.

The Greek interdisciplinary team, White Noise NTUA from the National Technical University of Athens, finished sixth in the overall rankings. They received two specific honors: the ‘Rookie of the Year’ award and the ‘Payload Award’. Their rocket, Aurora, featured an innovative recovery system using four movable carbon-fiber fairings and carried a research payload designed to detect and characterize airborne microplastics using Digital Holographic Microscopy and machine-learning algorithms.