The 2023 Spaceport America Cup is happening this week, June 19-24, in Southern New Mexico. Launch days can be watched live-stream on the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association YouTube page.
The Spaceport America Cup is the world’s largest intercollegiate rocketry engineering contest (IREC) and has been held in New Mexico since 2017. Drawn by the opportunity to collaborate and compete at a world-class spaceport facility, 159 student teams represent the best and brightest from more than 100 institutions located in 24 countries. In total, there will be over 5,900 students participating.
Spaceport America Cup will kicks off in Las Cruces Tuesday, June 20, with a full schedule that includes presentations and displays at the Las Cruces Convention Center, followed by three and a half days of rocket launching at Spaceport America’s vertical launch area in Sierra County, with the closing ceremony in the evening of June 24 at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces.
Students will have the opportunity to network with leading organizations in the aerospace community. Blue Origin and Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC) managed by Honeywell will have separate rooms set up on opening day at the Las Cruces Convention Center where they will be interviewing for full-time positions and internships.
Visitors are encouraged to attend the opening day at the Las Cruces Convention Center and must pre-register to attend the launches at Spaceport America which are open to the public. Tickets can be found at https://spaceportamericacup.com/. Pricing is $10 for adults and $5 for ages 18 years and under.
