UTEP Rocket Team Places Second at International Rocket Competition
Rocket soars to nearly 30,000 feet, claims 7th place overall out of 145 teams
EL PASO, Texas (July 7, 2025) – The Sun City Summit Rocket Team at The Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Texas at El Paso has claimed two victories at the International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC), placing seventh overall out of 145 teams and second out of 21 teams in their specific rocketry category. The multi-day event was held this summer near Midland, TX and brought thousands of students from 22 countries to show off their engineering skills and teamwork.
Pedro Ferreira da Silva, a master’s student in aerospace engineering, was the project manager for this year’s team. He explained that their rocket, Sandstorm, reached 29,541 feet at one-and-a-half times the speed of sound, making it the best flight in the team’s four-year history.
“Sandstorm is our most complex and best-performing rocket ever and I am extremely proud of the amazing job our students did,” da Silva said. “These accolades not only emphasize our students’ excellent engineering skills but also the resilience and teamwork capabilities they possess.”
The team competed in the 30,000-foot commercial off-the-shelf bracket, one of several categories based on launch height (10,000 feet, 30,000 feet or 45,000 feet); number of stages that the rocket goes through during launch; type of propulsion fuel; and how the propulsion fueling system was developed — commercially purchased or developed by students.
For the student rocketeers, the competition was the culmination of four years of hard work improving upon their rocket design and learning from past competitions. Their perseverance landed them ahead of other Texas competitors like The Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é.
Adrian Vicario is a junior at UTEP studying aerospace engineering and the leader of the rocket team’s avionics team, which handles the electrical systems within the rocket. He said being part of the rocket team helped him gain valuable experience outside of the classroom.
“At IREC, and in the preparation leading up to it, we worked as a team to design, build, launch, and recover our rocket successfully,” he said. “Throughout the year I have had to learn and develop skills such as problem solving, delegation, troubleshooting, research, and being a team player.”
The name of the rocket was inspired by an intense sandstorm that disrupted last year’s competition at Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, NM; the competition was previously known as the Spaceport America Cup. At this year’s event, a sandstorm once again damaged launch site facilities, but the competition was able to proceed.
After competing, the team spent their free time helping distribute water and snacks to other participants. Da Silva said some members were dispatched on a mission to help find another team that got lost in the desert while recovering their rocket, only to discover that they had been safely in their tent the whole time.
Da Silva will now pass the leadership torch on to another student, Damian Rangel. He said the team hopes to continue improving their rocket each year and push themselves to take on new challenges in the future, like IREC’s recently announced 45,000-foot multi-stage category.
“What our students accomplished with Sandstorm goes far beyond the launch pad,” said Kenith Meissner, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering. “They’ve demonstrated what’s possible when classroom learning is paired with hands-on design, teamwork, and grit. The success of the Sun City Summit Rocket Team reflects the level of talent, innovation, and perseverance that defines UTEP engineers.”
This year’s team was sponsored by UTEP’s Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department, the astronautics company Blue Origin and Ansys, a company that produces engineering simulation and 3D design software.
About The Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Texas at El Paso
The Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 25,000 students are Hispanic, and more than half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 171 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
Last Updated on July 07, 2025 at 12:00 AM | Originally published July 07, 2025
By MC Staff UTEP Marketing and Communications
