Image credit: UARX Space UARX Space receiving the prize from Dr. Anna Christmann

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) awarded UARX Space with a prize to fly aboard ISAR's Aerospace Spectrum rocket on its second flight as part of the C-STS programme run by the European Space Agency, designated to strengthen commercial space transportation services in Europe. UARX Space has presented a proposal to fly a PocketQube deployer together with a total of nine satellites that contain different payloads developed by more than 250 students.

This is the first time that DLR has opened the Mikrolauncher Payload Competition to countries other than Germany. From all the proposals received, only ten companies and institutions were selected to launch a total of 19 spacecraft, of which 9 are part of the Europe to Space Challenge.

"We are excited to know that the Europe to Space Challenge we organize to promote STEM in universities now has a flight opportunity and thank the jury for choosing us as a winner for this competition," says Andres Villa, CTO of UARX Space.

Europe to Space Challenge is an initiative of UARX Space intended to attract more students to pursue careers required to develop the space industry in Europe further. UARX has partnered with Hydra Space and AMSAT-EA to help students have a flight-proven kit where they can integrate their payloads. The challenge allows students to go through all the mission phases of a typical space mission, teaching them along the way. Due to the importance of the goal of this initiative, the challenge has been supported by many companies and institutions, such as Dassault Systèmes, and Xunta de Galicia. With the initiative, more than 250 students from Spanish universities are working to develop their payloads with amazing goals, from the study of the growth of tumor cells to technologies that will help improve future space missions through the study of different materials for radiation protection.

The students that participate in the challenge belong to different universities, including the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), Polytechnic University of Cataluña (UPC), European University of Madrid (UEM), University of Vigo (UV), and University of Cádiz (UCA).

The Mikrolauncher Competition is an initiative of the German government to impulse the development of Microlaunchers to attend to the demand for satellites that require arriving to Low Earth Orbit. On the first call, Isar Aerospace Technologies won the competition, and a total of 11 million euros were given to allow them to develop their Spectrum rocket. In the second round of the competition, Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) also won and received 11 million Euros as an advanced contract to help these start-ups to develop their rockets.

Spectrum is a two-stage Orbital Launch Vehicle capable of carrying up to 700 kilograms of payload to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit and is expected to launch for the second time from Norway by late 2023. In this second flight, the winners of the Payload Competition will fly aboard Spectrum. It is here where the students will be able to send their payloads to Low Earth Orbit.