EuRoC 2025 kicks off in Constância
EuRoC 2025 officially kicked off this Friday, October 10, in Constância with the official opening ceremony. Once again, the Constância Municipal Sports Pavilion became the meeting point for nearly 700 European students.
The official start of the 2025 edition of the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC) took place on Friday, October 10, with the competition’s opening ceremony. The event brought together around 700 participants at the Constância Municipal Sports Pavilion, as well as the President of the Portuguese Space Agency, Ricardo Conde, the Mayor of Constância, Sérgio Oliveira, and the 2nd Commander of the Mechanized Brigade, Colonel Adelino Jacinto.
“EuRoC is a remarkable example of how space can unite science, defense, and territory. In Constância and Santa Margarida, the country welcomes the best European aerospace engineering teams, affirming Portugal as a place of excellence for testing, learning, and innovating,” said the president of the Portuguese Space Agency during the ceremony.
For the mayor, “hosting EuRoC is a source of pride and satisfaction for the municipality because of the visibility it gives to the territory.” This competition has contributed to promoting Constância nationally and internationally, “enhancing the territory and strengthening its connection to science and innovation,” he said.
This Friday, a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between the Portuguese Space Agency and the Portuguese Army at the Santa Margarida Military Camp, reinforcing cooperation between institutions for the development of the space sector in Portugal. Between October 11 and 14, the roar of engines and the excitement of launches will take over the Santa Margarida Military Camp. With three daily windows: 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., and 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., each launch will test months of work and precision by the 28 university teams from 16 countries participating in the competition.
“The Mechanized Brigade is once again associated, with a high sense of mission, with the realization of EuRoC 2025, hosting the event at the Santa Margarida Military Camp, the Army’s Maneuvering Field,” says the commander of the Mechanized Brigade, Major General Luís Miguel Afonso Calmeiro. “By placing the Portuguese Army’s Maneuvering Field at the service of science, innovation, and academic training, the Army reaffirms its commitment to technological development, institutional cooperation, and strengthening the link between national defense and the scientific and academic community.”
Created and organized by the Portuguese Space Agency, EuRoC celebrates European engineering, innovation, and talent. This is the sixth edition of the competition, which takes place in Constância between October 9 and 15, bringing together 28 university teams from 16 countries with advanced engineering skills and rocket launch projects. The 2025 edition has the largest national participation ever, with four Portuguese teams in the final: Fénix Rocket Team, North Space, Porto Space Team, and Rocketry Experiment Division, reflecting the country’s growing commitment to training space engineers and the dynamism of the national industry.
EuRoC 2025 is supported by the Portuguese Army and the Municipality of Constância, with sponsorship from ESA (European Space Agency), Cambridge Aerospace, Tekever, Omnidea, Atlantic Spaceport Consortium, Meteomatics, Sumol+Compal, and Delta.
