In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, interest and progress in student rocketry has grown exponentially. After years of rescheduled launch dates and disrupted supply chain logistics we’re back, and may I say, better than ever. This year Imperial and Leeds both have planned altitude attempts, last year Edinburgh brought home the Payload Award from the European Rocketry Challenge, and on home soil, the University of Strathclyde competed and won Mach-22 - a competition that has since tripled in size. The ‘UK Uni Rocketry’ Discord has over 20 active teams (super cool), each with enthusiastic and bright young rocketeers that have an unwavering passion for testing boundaries that were previously thought to be impossible.
Despite the common interest among students involved in rocketry across the UK, we still lack the feeling of being a true network of people. We share the experience without truly sharing anything with each other. Enter the UK Amateur Rocketry Conference (UKARC)! A weekend with the theme of ‘Creating a Community’ - designed to bring these fabulous students from across the country together to share ideas, successes and plans for future collaboration. From August 25th-27th we hope to welcome over 200 of you to seminars, workshops and events that have been carefully planned by students just like yourself to have the largest possible impact. Since GUR began in 2019, education has been at the core of what we do. Yes, we design build and fly high-powered rockets, but the reason we do that is to equip our members with the skills needed for them to succeed in the space industry. For us, the UKARC is an extension of this idea, the people we have designed this event for are people that one day we might find ourselves working shoulder to shoulder with in 5 years' time, building these connections early helps to create a more cohesive well-oiled machine of an industry in the future.
Our hope would be that this year, the UKARC will take place in Glasgow and in the following years we can pass it to a different host university - making it accessible for as many students as possible and also providing an opportunity to maintain the connections we make – strengthening the community we create. Tickets and further details will be made live in the following weeks, and we are currently working closely with UKSEDs in hope of being able to provide travel subsidies for those of you joining us from further afield.
We are so excited to welcome you to our home in Glasgow, and if you have any questions in the interim - please don’t hesitate to get in contact using the details below! The UKARC will be hosted by students, for students and look at it this way - one small train ride for you, one giant leap for UK Student Rocketry (catchy eh?).
You can get in touch with us at info@gurocketry.co.uk
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