The Astronaute Club Européen (ACE) and its industrial and institutional partners are inviting university students from European universities to participate in the Student Aerospace Challenge 2026-2027.
The 21st edition of the Student Aerospace Challenge was launched on 7 October 2026 by partners from the aerospace sector including Astronaute Club Européen (ACE), ArianeGroup, Dassault Aviation, ESA and Le Bourget Air and Space Museum. For the past 20 years, they have dared interdisciplinary student teams from European universities to work on various aspects of a suborbital crewed vehicle.
For this new edition, two vehicles are proposed:
- a suborbital vehicle for high-speed long-range transport equipped with liquid hydrogen and oxygen rocket engines and able to transport between 10 and 20 regular passengers to a distance greater than 10 000 km (Rome to Los Angeles or Geneva to Singapore, for example) in 1 hour maximum.
- a reusable orbital vehicle servicing low Earth orbit able to accommodate up to seven people, carry out missions allowing stays in orbit ranging from a few days in autonomous flight to several months when docked to a space station, compatible with an existing launcher or one currently under development (please specify which one).
So far, the Challenge has engaged 303 student teams representing around 1395 university students.
Each year, partners define several work packages corresponding to domains of study realistically related to these types of innovative vehicle. Depending on their background and interests, student teams have the opportunity to work on a topic related to one of the work packages and to explore new solutions.
For this new edition, students can choose between the following 10 Work Packages (WPs).
WP1 – Promotion / Communication
WP7 – Technological concepts/Layout
WP8 – Reusable Propulsion / Maintenance
WP9 – Crew preparation and training
WP10 – Supply chain and Industrialisation
Students have to select a WP and the vehicle family they want to work on.
Partners are looking for economically viable and environmentally friendly solutions, as these criteria are becoming more important in aerospace projects, be they commercial endeavours or agency programmes.
Students wishing to participate in the 21st edition of this Challenge should form a team of two to five students, get familiar with the application process, obtain the oral authorisation to participate from an official member of their university and apply through the Application Form on the Student Aerospace Challenge website before 31 October 2026. The teams need to justify their WP choice by explaining its consistency with their academic background and experience as well as to provide a cover letter describing their motivation and skills.
Each application will be studied by the Organization Committee of the Challenge. The team’s ability to work efficiently on the selected work package, the specificities of their institution and the arguments put forward in their motivation letter will be particularly important to the Committee.
If the team is selected, the application will have to be officially validated by a representative of the team’s institution, and the students will be asked to follow the Challenge working instructions and schedule:
- 7 October 2026: beginning of application period
- 31 October 2026: end of application period
- 15 November 2026: deadline for sending Work Package sheet
- 15 December 2026: deadline for sending first progress report
- 18 January 2027: deadline for validation by experts
- 19 February 2027: deadline for sending second progress report
- 3 March 2027: deadline for answer by experts
- 4 April 2027: deadline for sending a 10-line summary explaining the work done
- 8 April 2027: webinar presenting the “Aerospace Challenge Day”
- 23 April 2027: deadline for sending final report, poster and bilingual work summary
- 3 June 2027: « The Aerospace Challenge Day », a special event, gathering students and Partners, ending the twenty-first exercise of the Student Aerospace Challenge
At the end of each edition, student teams are invited to the Aerospace Challenge Day, a special event bringing together the student teams and representatives of the different partners of the Challenge.
During this closing event, the students present their work and the best-quoted projects are rewarded with prizes, among them the “ESA Grand Prix”. This prize offers the best student team the unique opportunity to present their project to space professionals in an appropriate space-related event in Europe.
The ESA Grand Prix of the Student Aerospace Challenge 2025-2026 was won by the Pangea Astralis team, composed of five students. They developed HARPE (Hypersonic Airbreathing Reusable Propulsion Engine), a reusable hydrogen-fuelled dual-mode scramjet propulsion system designed for high-speed, long-range passenger transport. HARPE aims to enable atmospheric flight at speeds up to Mach 12 while combining high propulsive efficiency, reduced emissions and reusability.
The team will present their project at the fourth edition of the European Space Agency’s International Conference on Flight vehicles, Aerothermodynamics and Re-entry (FAR), organised in Toledo, Spain, from 11 to 15 April 2027.
Interested in applying? Fill in the application form with your team. Candidates have until and including Saturday, 31 October 2026, to register, form a team of two to five members, and add a project at the frontier of space to their academic experience!
For more information, check the Student Aerospace Challenge website.
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