Students from Aachen have been building their own rocket for years. Now they have finally been able to launch it from the Esrange Space Center. “It is pretty crazy” says Sebastian Hessel, one of the students who have been working on the rocket for three years.
STERN is the name of the rocket program for students funded by the German Space Agency DLR on behalf of the Fereral Ministry for Ekonomic Affaris and Climate Action. It’s about planning, building and launching your own rocket. Including making the rocket engine itself. The final goal is of course a successful launch from Esrange. The STAHR rocket was successfully launched from Esrange Space Center on the 24th of October 2024.
But the work is surrounded by many checks and reviews conducted by DLR MORABA, the Institute of Space Propulsion in Lampoldshausen and DLR Space Agency before the day of the launch. Only after the rocket has been approved does it leave for northern Sweden. Last year, students from the same rocket program broke altitude records with a hybrid student rocket. This time it’s not about breaking records, more that the launch and all systems should work as intended.
On board this specific rocket called STAHR (Space Team Aachen Hybrid Rocket) there are two payload experiments, but it is really the rocket itself that is the biggest experiment.
”One payload has a fluid inside and will study the crystallization velocity during microgravity. And the second payload is a flight computer from another project” says David Tritsch, a 22-year-old student from Aachen, currently in the role as systems engineer and project lead together with a launch team of 20 other students.
The rocket is a hybrid, which means it uses a solid fuel together with a liquid or a gaseous oxidizer. The length is approximately 5 meters and the weight around 100 kg. The altitude for the rocket will be around 32-38 km. One special thing about this rocket is that is uses special fins, manufactured all-in-one out of carbon fiber.
“We have the possibility to test a lot of stuff, things that you normally wouldn’t have the chance to do commercially. With the funding from DLR we have also the time to try out new technologies” says Sebastian Hessel, a 24 year old student from FH Aachen University.
To be able to test new things as well for the students to prepare for their future work in space business is what the program is made for.
“We support the universities with a fixed funding budget and the technical expertise of the DLR institutes, MORABA and Lampoldshausen, by carrying out reviews, providing test opportunities for the propulsion system and running the campaign at Esrange,” says Karsten Lappöhn, STERN programme manager at the German Space Agency (DLR)
