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Visiting Rocket Factory Augsburg

May 13, 2022 - Space Team Aachen had the honor to be invited by Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), a micro-launcher company aiming to launch Europe's first ever rocket powered by an oxidizer-rich, stage combustion engine, to visit their facilities and get an in-depth presentation of their technology. RFA was able to give us insights into their current development, their long-term goals, and into what drove them towards the decision to found a company focussed on the design and operation of orbital rockets. Our team also had the chance to marvel at their flight hardware, and even got to see their first fully assembled engine, Helix, before it was shipped to Esrange for its test campaign. We got to discuss injector designs, thrust vector control, flight avionics, test bench designs, and many more fields both our organizations work on. This was an incredible opportunity for us at Space Team Aachen to reflect on our own goals as an association, motivating us to take on bigger projects and to always raise our standards. While our project differ a lot from RFA's in terms of scope and complexity, they provide a good groundwork for what lies ahead. Two Space Team Aachen alumni are already full time employees at RFA, working on the development of its engine and turbopump, and many members have already been working for RFA as interns. As a parting gift, RFA even gave us two of their flags! We are extremely thankful to them for this opportunity and wish them all the best in preparation of their upcoming launch in 2023.