NIBONG TEBAL, 8 February 2023 – The nation’s only collegiate rocketry team, WAU Rocketry USM team is qualified again to compete at the world’s largest Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Conference (IREC) and student rocket launch competition, Spaceport America (SA) Cup 2023 this coming June.

The USM team comprising of sixteen students, led by Vanmitha Athimoolam, with their advisors Dr. Norilmi Amilia Ismail and Dr. Chang Wei Shyang from the USM School of Aerospace Engineering will participate in the competition in Southern New Mexico for the annual competition, slated to begin from 19 to 24 June 2023.

Over 170 teams from 27 countries have competed during the qualification rounds and WAU Rocketry team are among the 158 teams from 24 countries and 6 continents that were selected to compete in the annual competition.

WAU Rocketry USM will compete at 10,000 feet COTS category with the launch of a HEBAT 2.0 Rocket with their main mission to improvise the HEBAT design and flight performance.

Last year, as first-timers in the rocketry field, the WAU Rockery team placed HEBAT in the 7th ranking out of 47 teams and Malaysia was ranked 12th out of 99 teams.

According to Vanmitha, it is hoped that the team will get to cross the Karman Line one day from the Malaysian soil and she will make sure that it will be their proud moment as USM Aerospace Engineering Students.

The WAU Rocketry Team is currently working hard on the development of the HEBAT 2.0 rocket as they aim to put our nation in the top 5 rankings of the SA Cup 2023.

Do follow WAU Rocketry USM’s official Facebook and Instagram pages for more updates on the project.

Text: Vanmitha Athimoolam/Editing: Nur Farrah Ezlin Mohd Suhaimi/Infographic: Norhaslin Salehuddin