Lander Challenge

Helping young people accomplish ambitious things

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

We are incredibly happy to announce, Cal Poly SLO Propulsion Technologies just won a $15,000 Lander Challenge prize for successfully Thrust Vector Controlling a 600 lbf engine.

Check out their 33 day journey from the 1st to 6th attempt! Incredible cadence of testing!

[Eric Jorgenson 📚 ☀️ @EricJorgenson]

They say @elonmusk doesn't do philanthropy.

But this is epic, helping college kids build rockets.

[Stefan Salaices @stefan_salaices]

Lmfao why did they suspend Patrick Finley’s account 💀

This guy is literally helping college rocket teams raise money for their club through challenges.

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

@PatrickFinley_ Those are our teams!

[Patrick Finley @PatrickFinley_]

We just partnered with the Musk Foundation to give out $175k in grants to advance the frontier of collegiate rocketry.

This is in addition to the $390k we’re already giving out to collegiate teams building propulsive self-landing rockets.

When we first started, people laughed and told us what we were attempting would be impossible.

2 years later, several student teams have achieved both TVC and throttled hotfire with liquid engines, and they are making fast progress on their hoppers. We’re already seeing hover attempts at a collegiate level!

These kids are doing this on 0.001% of a typical rocket budget, dedicating 80 hour weeks without any pay to build some of the most capable rockets outside of industry.

The reason why so many people fall in love with space and rocketry is because it is proof that humanity is capable of the impossible.

We want to continue to advance that mission.

Back to work.

[Patrick Finley @PatrickFinley_]

college rocket teams have the most talented engineers and it's not even close

[Patrick Finley @PatrickFinley_]

in the lead up to starship flight 12, a reminder that early starship test flights were just giant stainless steel cylinders welded on top of each other

spacex always wins because they are really good at doing things fast and not necessarily perfect

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

@PatrickFinley_ our teams are built different

[Patrick Finley @PatrickFinley_]

typical engineering students: what did you get on that fluids final?

aero-eng: we have achieved tvc mach diamonds in our garage

[NASA Ames @NASAAmes]

Sail deployment achieved!

Our Advanced Composite Solar Sail System has successfully unfurled its sail & will use sunlight for propulsion as it orbits Earth, testing next-generation technologies that will help enable future missions at the Moon & beyond: https://t.co/s0kDJ8VxkE

[Jason Carman @jasonjoyride]

Solar power is the future — it's rapidly getting cheaper and is inexhaustible.

But, it only works 50% of the time... during the day.

@reflectorbital is challenging that by building a fleet of mirror satellites to power solar farms at night in Episode 50 of S³

[Ben Nowack ☀️🌎🪞 @bennbuilds]

New things to play with on the website!

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

Absolutely incredible achievement!

@ID_AA_Carmack @dmasten

[Gruyere Space Program @GruyereSpace]

Colibri has completed its maiden #flight! 🚀

This is the first time an all-student team has successfully flown a #RocketHopper!

The flight went according to plan! The vehicle ascended 1m and #hovered for 8s.

And this is just the beginning of our test flight campaign! 🔥

[Astrobotic @astrobotic]

In development at Astrobotic: Xogdor, a versatile, fully reusable suborbital rocket for flight testing, point-to-point cargo delivery, and more! Xogdor is scheduled to make its first launch in 2025. #vtvl #xogdor

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

We're sure some of our partners are paying attention... @GoToImpulse , @stoke_space , @astrobotic

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

Huge congrats to SLO Propulsion Technologies on winning their second Lander Challenge prize, and being the first to win the $15k Throttle Award!

https://t.co/2RMQ9EIk0j

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

They successfully throttled from 900 lbf down to 275 lbf and back up again, over 10 seconds, with their nitrous oxide/IPA engine -- seriously impressive stuff!

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

Benjamin Tait, @seb_berkeley alumni who now works on Avionics at @SpaceX talks about his time at SEB as the avionics lead and chief engineer and the benefits of "reinventing the wheel".

[RocketTalk🚀 @Pad33space]

FAR-OUT. June 7-10

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

Learn more about some of the @usclpl team members attempting to throttle this Saturday in the Lander Challenge!

[Lander Challenge @LanderChallenge]

If you’re at @USC, consider joining the team!!