In late 2018 a handful of students came together for the first time to discuss their shared passion for rocketry. Space Team Aachen was not yet born but outlined for the first time.
MORA (Modell Rakete) was the first rocket ever to be launched in the context of Space Team Aachen activity. It was launched multiple times and reached a maximum apogee of 349.6 m.
Space Team Aachen is officially founded following the board’s majority vote according to chapter § 3 of the association statute.
While Frodo was the first Space Team Rocket to feature multiple solid rocket motors, the Duhnsen Brenner was to be the first to incorporate staging. Sadly, both launches ran into trouble. FRODO only made it a few meters off the ground.
The second iteration of FRODO reached an apogee of 494.69 m and had a successful recovery.
Space Team Aachen participated at the inaugural edition of the European Rocketry Challenge and launched its first competition rocket CARL to 1,973 m.
Space Team Aachen’s first hybrid rocket is selected to be part of STERN III, setting the path for Space Team Aachen to launch a hybrid rocket in 2024.
The second competition rocket of Space Team Aachen launches at the second iteration of the European Rocketry Challenge. Sporting many upgrades compared to CARL, CARL II reached an apogee of 2848 m. 5th out of 19 teams.
Space Team Aachen’s reentry capsule, the transportation cooling experiment TRACE, is selected for REXUS cycle 14, becoming Space Team Aachen’s first REXUS experiment.
Alpha was Space Team Aachen’s first attempt at designing an actively stabilized rocket. Five launches were conducted, sadly without achieving a stable flight.
In preparation for the first hot fires of the demonstrator engine DETLEF for project STAHR, two cold flow tests were conducted, inaugurating the Space Team Aachen rocket motor test stand.
Successful in the first attempt: The demonstrator engine DETLEF for project STAHR burned for around seven seconds in the association’s first hot fire test.
First test campaign with the battleship version of the INES engine used for the hybrid rocket STAHR. Five tests with burn times between five and ten seconds at the M11 test stand at DLR Lampoldshausen.
First flight of Alya. Investigation of the flight behavior that is to be replicated by an engine gimble in the passively instable version.
Second flight of Alya. Investigation of the flight behavior that is to be replicated by an engine gimble in the passively instable version.
Aquila spreads its wings in preparation for the Spaceport America Cup using a smaller motor to keep within the local altitude restrictions. Successful recovery under the drogue parachute.
Second test campaign with the battleship version of the INES engine used for the hybrid rocket STAHR. Incorporation of mixing disc for additional thrust.
Presentation of Space Team Aachen’s third competition rocket and the first German rocket to fly at the Spaceport America Cup in New Mexico.
Aquila flies in America. First Space Team Aachen rocket to go supersonic. Apogee probably above 7500 m although the commercial flight computer ejected the nose cone after motor burnout, so no reliable data was gathered.
Third test campaign with the battleship version of the INES engine used for the hybrid rocket STAHR featuring a new nozzle design. First time to test the full duration burn in blowdown mode.
First test of Space Team Aachen’s vacuum arc thruster ARI (Aachen Research Ion Thruster) to be used to de-orbit the AQUIS satellite at the end of its mission.
The Transpiration Cooling Experiment for REXUS 31 is presented in Aachen, the third free flight experiment worldwide on the topic and the first one made by students.
Space Team Aachen exhibits at a trade fair for the first time. The structure of the hybrid rocket STAHR is exhibited in the JEC World Mobility Planet.
The re-entry experiment on transpiration cooling launches out of Esrange on REXUS 31, becoming the most complex experiment to date to ever launch in the scope of the REXUS program. TRACE is ejected from the nose cone section of REXUS 31 at an altitude of 78.5 km.
First test campaign of the STAHR hybrid rocket motor using multiple possible engine casings which can be used in flight.
