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Simon Bambey, a fifth-year engineering physics student who founded UBC Rocket in 2016, called the challenge “very ambitious” but one that pushes students to new frontiers.

“Failure is definitely an option,” he said. “Maybe none of the teams would succeed, but no matter what, the learning that would come out of it is immense.

The rockets just have to hit outer space; it doesn’t have to stay in orbit. But that’s not an easy feat.

To date, no student team has successfully launched a liquid rocket — meaning both the fuel and the oxidizer are in liquid form — into space.

Recently, a student team from the University of Southern California successfully launched a solid rocket into space.

UBC Rocket is working to launch its liquid-propelled rocket by December 2020, a year before the Base 11 challenge’s deadline, at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert to beat the graduation date of some of its senior members.

If it doesn’t manage to meet the 2020 launch, it’ll aim for 2021 with the senior members transitioning out of the team to become advisors.

So far, the team is on track. On Friday, it successfully test-fired a liquid fuel rocket engine at a blasting site in Chilliwack — the first student-led team from Canada to do so.

Photo by for story by Cheryl Chan / PNG

It was brief, but a cause for celebration. “It was about a one-second test,” said Bambey. “But it will need to fire for 60 seconds and not melt in the process.”

Their next goal is to develop the second iteration of the rocket, incorporating lessons learned from the first hot fire to develop one that would fire for the full duration.