Rocketeers are Competing at the IREC for Your Attention

The 2026 International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) is rapidly approaching.  Thousands of engineering students, representing 150 teams from 20+ countries, will converge at the Midland Spaceport (aka, the West Texas oil patch), near Balmorhea, Texas, to showcase the projects they have produced after 8 months of dedicated effort.  The event, hosted since 2006 by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA), is scheduled for June 15-20, 2026.

The IREC is the largest collegiate engineering rocketry competition in the world.  At the launch itself, the Teams hope to “push the button”, sending their rockets to altitudes as high as 50,000 feet.  These are large rockets – weighing in between 50 and 200 pounds – and seeing them soar is truly thrilling.  Many carry functional scientific payloads with missions limited only by the teams’ creativity and imagination.

While the launch is the payoff, teams face numerous challenges along the way, including securing sponsors and funding, passing safety inspections, dealing with unpredictable weather, and navigating school bureaucracy.  Participants gain valuable project management and teamwork skills, tackle real-world technical problems, manage tight schedules and hone the hands-on craftsmanship skills that are difficult to obtain elsewhere. The 100+ ESRA volunteers that ESRA relies on to run the event understand the importance of these skills.  Indeed, many of those volunteers are former competitors who want to pass down the benefits of the IREC experience.

Teams are evaluated based on their rocket design, flight results and payload performance. The competition awards are great, but the students are also competing for the attention of the sponsors and potential employers throughout the Aerospace industry.  They want you to know what they’ve accomplished, and the IREC gives them a platform to tell you.  For example, many teams participate in the Team Video Challenge, which lets them share their journey.  Here’s a great example from the team that won the 2025 Challenge.  Multiply this by 160 – that’s what IREC is.

An important part of the competition is the preparation of a Technical Report that details all aspects of the rocket and payload designs (these reports complement other team presentations at the competition). This year, for the first time, the Project Technical Reports will be published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

The IREC is designed to encourage interaction between the students and sponsors. The first two days of the event are held at the Horseshoe Pavilion in Midland, Texas, where teams display their rockets for review by competition officials, sponsors and the general public.  Students often discuss their interests and career goals with our sponsors during this time. Then, at the competition, sponsors are stationed near the student viewing area, observing firsthand their successes and setbacks, with ample opportunities to connect with team members.

If you’re a company involved in the Aerospace Industry, there is still time to get in on the fun at IREC.  For more information visit www.esrarocket.org.

Media Director: Jessica McCarty | Media@ESRARocket.org