A student team from the National Technical University of Athens just placed sixth overall and picked up two awards at th...

A student team from the National Technical University of Athens just placed sixth overall and picked up two awards at the European Rocketry Challenge 2026 in Portugal. The team, White Noise NTUA, built and launched a three-metre solid-propellant research rocket called Aurora, designed to reach an altitude of 3,000 metres. Every component was built by the students themselves, from the custom flight electronics and telemetry systems to an active airbrake that controls the rocket's maximum altitude. Aurora's recovery system is what sets it apart. Four movable carbon-fibre panels open at the moment the rocket hits its peak altitude, triggering the parachutes to deploy. The successful launch capped months of design, construction and testing by the interdisciplinary team. White Noise NTUA has been building aerospace systems since 2017, drawing undergraduate students from across different academic disciplines at NTUA's School of Mechanical Engineering. #Greece #Science #NTUA