Longhorn LIFT Challenge

A national liquid rocketry competition founded by Texas Rocket Engineering Lab and hosted by the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. The Longhorn Liquid Innovation & Flight Technology Challenge is a skill competition where competing teams of college or university students design, build, test, and launch liquid-propelled rockets to achieve the best performance in various categories. The competition will be followed by a conference in August 2025.

Open to all collegiate U.S. liquid rocketry programs

Submissions must have taken place during this time period: May 16th, 2024, and ending May 15th, 2025. Submissions are open until May 15th, 2025.

The winning competition teams of each category will receive recognition and an award at the yearly Longhorn LIFT Conference taking place in August.

Our primary categories:

Maximum Mass-to-Altitude

Maximum Thrust-to-Weight Ratio

Minimum Propellant Residual Amount

Most Accurate Landing/Recovery

Longest Hot Fire

Highest Thrust Hot Fire

Most Successful Hotfires in One Week

More details to come in early 2025

Please fill out this interest form to be added to our Longhorn LIFT Challenge mailing list and stay in the loop!

Interest Form →