UNITED STATES: Leeds University Rocketry Association is a student-led, multi-discipline engineering team at the University of Leeds. Together they design, build and launch the sub-orbital rockets. Seven months into formation, on 25th October 2021, LURA got selected to compete in the world’s most prestigious intercollegiate rocketry competition, the Spaceport America Cup, spoke founder of LURA during an interview with Transcontinental Times.
Leeds’ first-ever student-built rocket Gryphon-1 will be lifting off from the New Mexico desert in June 2022. The world’s largest rocket engineering competition is Spaceport America Cup. More than 150 teams from different countries around the globe participate. The LURA team will be launching Gryphon -I with a target apogee of 10,000ft.
The LURA team set out to walk and run a mammoth distance of 8014 km, distance from the University of Leeds to New Mexico to raise funds and be financially viable to compete in the prestigious competition. The whole team juggling between their university assignments has committed to preparing Mars Generation. A team that works together with engineers and non-engineers sets it apart from other rocketry associations.
During an exclusive interview with Transcontinental Times, Theo Youds, founder of LURA talked about the upcoming test launches in February and March followed by the launch of Gryphon 1 above the New Mexico desert. In the coming two years, the organization is set to develop technology and infrastructure to regularly launch scientific experiments aboard student-built rockets. This will make the University of Leeds the only university in the UK to achieve this.
Theo Youds spoke about the future of LURA. After Gryphon-I, the team will evolve the design and create a large, heavy-lift rocket- Gryphon- II. The Gryphon-II will make its appearance at the Spaceport America Cup 2023. It will be the launch of the first Leeds student-built payload experiment onboard a Gryphon-II rocket.
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