REXUS 27 and 28 research rockets launched

28 university students participating in the Swedish-German student programme REXUS/BEXUS attended the event. They represented 5 different experiment teams – 3 of which were sponsored by the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA) and ESA – who developed the scientific experiments flown on the two rockets.

The REXUS/BEXUS programme allows students from universities and higher education colleges across Europe to carry out scientific and technological experiments on research rockets (REXUS) and stratospheric balloons (BEXUS).

REXUS experiments are launched on an unguided, spin-stabilised rocket powered by an Improved Orion Motor. It can take 40 kg of student experiment modules to an altitude of approximately 80-90 km, which provides approximately 3 minutes of reduced gravity time for the experiments.

In December 2018, three student teams from ESA member states have been selected by the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA) and ESA to develop their experiment ideas into real life hardware to be flown on the research rockets REXUS 27 and REXUS 28.

Over the last years, the teams have designed, built, and tested their experiments. Along the way they were closely followed and supported by experts of the REXUS/BEXUS programme partners. The teams successfully went through several formal project reviews, integration events and test campaigns before they were ready for their launch campaign.

The launch was originally scheduled for March 2020. Due to the COVID pandemic and a fire at Esrange Space Center it had to be postponed several times, leading to previously unseen delay in the programme.

This faced the student team with completely new problems. There were technical problems, for example the question if the experiment can be stored for such a long time. Also organizational problems had to be solved, like the need to keep the team members involved and trained on the hardware, to hand-over knowledge to new team members, and to re-arrange the project schedule more than once.

But even faced with all these challenges, the teams did not give up. The students stayed committed to their experiments, with a strong desire to receive their scientific results.

From 28 October to 09 November 2022, it was then finally time to travel to the launch campaign at the SSC Esrange Space Center in Northern Sweden. During the launch campaign, the three teams selected and sponsored by SNSA and ESA were accompanied by two teams from Germany, which were sponsored by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

After 7 intense days of final verification and testing, flight simulations and test countdowns the experiments, rocket systems and launch site were ready to launch. The first rocket to launch was REXUS 27 which lifted-off on 05 November 10:07 local time and reached a flight apogee of 84.9 km.

The SNSA/ESA sponsored student teams on REXUS 27 were:

FLORENCE (Flow boiling regime in microgravity conditions experiment) from KU Leuven University in Belgium.

HADES (Hayabusa-capsule active dynamic re-entry stabilisation) from the Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse occidentale in Switzerland.

One additional team, sponsored by the DLR, was on board as well:

AIMIS (Additive manufacturing in space) from the University of applied Science Munich, Germany

REXUS 28 was launched just 2 days later, on 07 November 07:43 local time. It reached an altitude of 95.7 km. This is a new altitude record for REXUS, due to a very light payload with only 2 experiments.

The SNSA/ESA sponsored team on this flight was:

SPEAR (Supersonic parachute experiment aboard REXUS) – Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Again, one additional team sponsored by DLR flew on REXUS 28:

ROACH-2 (Robotic in-orbit analysis of cover hulls 2) – University of Stuttgart, Germany

Both rocket payloads were equipped with a parachute and could be recovered just a few hours after the flights. The teams have received their experiments back and are now busy with a detailed analysis of the data gathered during the flight.

The teams could already present preliminary results during the campaign, which indicates a full success for 2 of the 3 SNSA/ESA sponsored experiments. Only the re-entry capsule of the HADES experiment could not be found in the Swedish wilderness. But the team has been able to provide estimations for the landing coordinates and remains optimistic that the capsule will be found next summer.

About the programme:

The REXUS/BEXUS programme is realised under a bilateral Agency Agreement between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). The Swedish share of the payload has been made available to students from other European countries through a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). EuroLaunch, a cooperation between the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) of DLR, is responsible for the campaign management and operations of the launch vehicles. Experts from DLR, SSC, ZARM and ESA provide technical support to the student teams throughout the project. REXUS and BEXUS are launched from SSC, Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.