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About Space Raiders

Space Raiders was formed in August 2017 and was aimed at expanding Texas Tech’s student aerospace capabilities via competitive high-powered rocketry. The team has built on several years of high power rocketry experience to create a high power rocketry capabilities that are competitive at the university level. At the 2024 Spaceport America Cup, Space Raiders competed in the 10K COTS category (using commercial off the shelf propulsion systems) and placed 38th overall out of 122 launching teams and was one of only 50 teams to recover with no damage. Previously, the team also competed in Spaceport America Cup 2023 and NASA Student Launch Initiative (SLI).

During the 2024-2025 academic year, Space Raiders will return to compete at Spaceport America Cup (now IREC, the International Rocket Engineering Competition), this time in the 10K SRAD category (using student researched and developed propulsion systems).

 
 

CURRENT PROJECTS

2024-2025: International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC), 10K SRAD

Space Raiders will be returning to Spaceport America Cup (now IREC, the International Rocket Engineering Competition) in 2025. This year, the team will be competing in the 10K SRAD with a 10,000 ft apogee target and using a custom student researched and developed propulsion system.

 

PREVIOUS PROJECTS

2023-2024: Fearless Champion (Spaceport America Cup, 10K COTS)

During Spaceport America Cup 2024, Space Raiders launched Fearless Champion, a 6-in diameter 12-ft tall rocket, to approximately 10,000 ft on an AeroTech M6000 motor. The team had a successful competition campaign, with the team’s technical report being scored 16th out of 122 teams and being scored 38th overall, along with having the distinction of being one of only fifty teams to successfully recover their rocket without damage.

SAC 2024 Technical Report

2022-2023: Centennial Champion (Spaceport America Cup, 10K COTS)

Space Raiders competed in the Spaceport America Cup for the first time in 2023. The team launched Centennial Champion, a 13’-long, 6”-diameter rocket that flew on an Aerotech N2000W. Centennial Champion was launched twice: first during a test launch in May 2023 in Seymour, Texas at the Tripoli North Texas launch site and second at Spaceport America in New Mexico during the competition.

2021-2022: Matador II

During the 2021-2022 academic year, Space Raiders goal was to design, build, test, and launch a Level 2 rocket (motor class I-L, total impulse between 320-5120 Ns) to gain experience for future competitions we hope to apply for. A successful flight is crucial for the admission phase when applying to compete in any rocket competition. Matador II was a 4-inch diameter rocket weighing 60lb, and it flew on a Cesaroni L1395, achieving a speed of 1.5 Mach and reaching 10,000ft. The mission was a success with a nominal flight and successful recovery of the rocket without any damage.

2019-2020: NASA USLI

Proposal for NASA’s 2019-2020 University Student Launch Initiative outlining project goals, proposed designs, and plans for the 2019-2020 season.

This report package contains preliminary designs and evaluates design risks, efficacy, and establishes the basis for subsequent designs.

2018-2019: Matador One

The Matador One is a 14' long, 6" diameter rocket developed by the Raider Aerospace Society at Texas Tech University. This student designed rocket carried two payloads, one for NASA research and the other for CERN. The NASA payload is a series of microfluidic plates intended for future flight to Enceladus, a moon of Saturn and the CERN payload is Muon particle detector.

 
 
 

2017-2018: Raider 2 (NASA USLI)

Proposal for NASA’s 2017-2018 University Student Launch Initiative outlining project goals, proposed designs, and plans for the 2017-2018 academic year.

This report package contains preliminary designs and evaluates design risks and efficacy and establishes the basis for subsequent designs.

This report package contains the critical designs intended for competition. The team evaluated the risk and efficacy of the final design while explaining and justifying the design in the most complete manner possible.

This flight readiness review package ensures that Raider 2 is ready for competition and is a safe, effective, and launch-worthy vehicle.

The post launch assessment looks back at the project and analyzes the performance of Raider 2 against mission-based guidelines and expectations.