Project Nixus

Project Nixus experienced both major technical milestones and a successful competition launch year. Early in the year, the team completed the redesign of its additively manufactured injector head, combining previously separate components into a single lightweight, high-performance part. Cold-flow and hot-fire tests at TUM’s facilities validated both performance and structural integrity, while also serving as a valuable training opportunity for new members.

Throughout the summer, the EX-4C rocket entered full system integration. Avionics health checks, subsystem interface verification, and extensive ground infrastructure testing, including fueling stations and our self-built launch rail, ensured readiness for competition.

In October, Nixus competed at the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC) 2025. After passing the Flight Readiness Review without issues, the team faced tight schedules, challenging wind conditions, and a valve failure in the fueling system. Through persistence and careful operational decisions, EX-4C successfully lifted off on the final launch day. Although a pressurization issue limited thrust and resulted in a reduced apogee of 1.48 km, the flight remained fully controlled, and the recovery system performed nominally.

With only 13 of 28 teams achieving lift-off at EuRoC 2025, the successful launch stands as a significant accomplishment and a testament to the robustness of the system and the team’s dedication. After EuRoC, the team immediately started with testing of the newly developed electric pumps, and finished several successful test campaigns until mid-December, putting itself in a good starting position for the expected launch of the pump-fed vehicle in 2026

Project WESP (WARR Experimental Solid Platform)

2025 was a defining year for Project WESP. It began with the launch campaign of EX-1Evo at IREC 2025, where the team demonstrated a novel and highly optimized fin section design. Despite challenging circumstances, including a storm-damaged launch site and last-minute schedule changes, the team successfully adapted and ultimately launched as the first rocket of the competition.

The booster stage performed entirely nominally, staging occurred as planned, and the sustainer accelerated nominally, reaching Mach 2.5, making EX-1Evo the fastest rocket in WARR’s history. Shortly before sustainer burnout, the vehicle experienced a failure most likely caused by a sudden increase in angle of attack, leading to vehicle disintegration. While the loss of the sustainer was disappointing, the campaign was an extraordinary technical success: MaxQ was passed without structural failure, critical design limits were explored, and extensive recovery operations yielded valuable data and insights. Following IREC, the team transitioned into its third season with a clear objective: a mission exceeding 100 km altitude, and thereby becoming the first European student rocketry team reaching space. This step represents a fundamental shift, requiring in-house solid rocket motor development and a complete redesign of avionics, structures, recovery systems, and mission architecture. Throughout autumn, WESP completed its System Concept Review, initiated first component designs, and prepared for the Preliminary Design Review in December, while simultaneously planning initial hot-fire tests of newly developed solid motors.

Project Retrofire

2025 marked the establishment and rapid growth of Project Retrofire, WARR’s new rocket lander initiative aiming for autonomous propulsive landing in the Collegiate Propulsive Lander Challenge (CPLC). The project successfully passed its Mission Concept and Definition Review (MCR & MDR), System Requirements Review (SRR) laying a strong foundation in systems engineering from the outset.

The team expanded significantly and integrated fully into WARR Rocketry’s organizational and development structure. It also progressed swiftly into the detailed design phase with some subsystems already having passed their Preliminary Design Review (PDR). Significant developments included the sizing of the throttleable thrust chamber, the design of throttle valves, thrust vector control systems, reaction control systems for roll stabilization, and the first structural Design of the lander.

Parallel to the design efforts, the Controls team advanced high-fidelity simulations and prepared a subscale test vehicle, the E-Hopper, which conducted its first tethered test flight in late December.

We want to wish you a great start in the year 2026!

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After months of preparation, testing, and long nights, watching our rocket climb into the sky was an unforgettable moment for the entire team. The atmosphere on the pad and in mission control was filled with pure joy and relief.

You can find more about Project Nixus on our Rocketry Team page.

The launch took place at the Campo Militar de Santa Margarida in Portugal. We thank the EuRoC organizers and the Portuguese Space Agency for the launch opportunity.

Go Nixus! Go WARR Rocketry! Go Munich!

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In the fifth episode of our Tech Deep Dive Series, former WESP project lead Ludwig introduces the EX-1E rocket, which flew at the Spaceport America Cup 2024. The EX-1E is a two-stage, supersonic solid-propellant sounding rocket.

Stay tuned for upcoming videos, where we’ll dive deeper into specific components of the EX-1E and its successor, the EX-1Evo, which is set to fly at this year’s IREC competition.

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In this Tech Deep Dive video, former WESP simulation subteam lead Anibal presents the development and capabilities of the WSPR tool. This presentation was originally delivered at the Spaceport America Cup (SAC) 2024.

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In this episode of our WARR Tech Deep Dive series, our Thrust Chamber Team Lead, Moritz, takes you through the design, manufacturing, and testing of our thrust chambers. He shares insights into what we’ve developed and tested over the past years. If you’re interested in rocket engine testing, stay tuned—more videos on this topic will follow as we continue this year’s testing campaigns!

Check out the video to learn more about how we’re refining our tech and what’s coming next!

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In this Tech Deep Dive Series episode, Nixus Injector Design Lead Daniel breaks down the different injector types we use in our bi-liquid project, Nixus. He also shares a look at what’s next for our injector development.

Check out the video to learn more about how we’re refining our tech and what’s coming next!

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In the first video of our new Tech Deep Dive Series, our current Nixus project lead, Jannes, explains how our liquid rocket systems work. Nixus is our bi-liquid project, which we launched at the European Rocketry Challenge in Portugal (EuRoC 2024). As the first student team, we successfully launched a cryogenic bi-liquid rocket in Europe.

INFORMATION: Due to official regulations at EuRoC 2024, we were not allowed to use our main parachute, which decelerates the rocket enough to prevent damage at touchdown. Therefore, the rocket descended with significantly higher velocity and was damaged, as seen in the video.

In future videos, you will learn more about our rocket’s subsystems and other projects in WARR itself.

The Tech Deep Dive Series episodes will come online every second week.

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Project Nixus

After a year of development, 2024 marked the highlight of Project Nixus. With a successful launch campaign at EuRoC 2024, WARR is proud to have launched the very first cryogenic bi-liquid rocket in European student rocketry. At 18:44 (UTC+1) on 14 October, the EX-4B was launched, reaching an apogee of 1,678 meters. The competition judges recognized the team’s exceptional performance with three awards: the Team Award, the Payload Award, and the Level 3 Award.

After the scrapped launch campaign in 2023, the team completely reworked the rocket’s design and significantly improved its reliability. However, Project Nixus was not just about launching our first bi-liquid rocket; we also aimed to advance our propulsion capabilities. We have begun investigating an electric pump-fed propulsion system, and developments are already underway. We aim to complete our first pump prototype by early 2025.

Project WESP

In Project WESP, the greatest milestone was successfully participating in the largest student rocketry competition in the world. As WARR Rocketry, we didn’t settle for a typical rocket; instead, we launched Germany’s first student-built two-stage rocket. This project focuses on solid propulsion, which we used as the propellant. In preparation, we successfully conducted a single-stage test launch in Germany. After the competition in the USA, the project transitioned to its next phase. We plan to launch again at IREC in 2025 to significantly reduce the rocket’s weight and achieve greater apogees. Like Project Nixus, Project WESP also has long-term ambitions. We aim to achieve higher velocities and altitudes by deepening our knowledge of solid propulsion and developing our own solid rocket motors.

Project Retrofire

In previous years, controls and landing systems received less attention at WARR Rocketry. However, growing interest from students, the university, and the broader aerospace community inspired us to initiate Project Retrofire. This project focuses on building a hopper vehicle for the Lander Challenge, a global competition for student teams to design a rocket hopper capable of a 50-meter free flight.

So far, the project has passed its MDR (Mission Definition Review) and is now working on finalizing the vehicle design. In parallel, we are developing both a bi-liquid hopper and an electric fan hopper to gain initial insights into the flight dynamics of such systems.

Summary

All in all, we are proud of our accomplishments. We showcased our capabilities at two major competitions, and teams around the world were impressed by our engineering expertise and the dedication of our team members.

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What does a rocket need to launch besides consumables and a place to start? At the beginning of 2022, Project Cryosphere reached the final stages of development for the Liquid Oxygen Hybrid EX-3 rocket. With the rocket nearing completion, it was clear that a full-scale launch test was necessary to validate each component. However, the final requirements were demanding, as the launch site had not yet been determined, and the available options presented vastly different environmental conditions.

The EX-3 rocket architecture, with its passive stabilization, needs to be guided through its initial launch phase. The resulting exit velocity ensures the fin functionality and safe ascend. Therefore, the idea of a big Launch Tower was born, a project of its size never seen in the history of WARR. Over the next one and half years, the Sub Team Cryo-GSE was responsible for working out a working concept. The challenges involved in building something, where experience from past projects is unavailable, required many iterations and new ideas.

Step by Step

For the first designs, the tower features staggered, commercially available aluminum traverses, which are held by wires attached to a moving back beam. The beam would be pulled down with a commercial rope pulley to raise the whole tower. The guiding rail features a commercial aluminum extrusion profile for attaching the rocket with holding pins. The holding base structure consists of three legs that stabilize the tower. To support the dead weight of the tower, the center piece distributes the load to the ground and only serves to hold the legs in place.

Since every part of the structure has to withstand massive loads while also being as light as possible, problems arise, and small solutions often lead to necessary changes throughout the entire structure. Over months of work, these changes resulted in various designs while maintaining certain requirements and design philosophies.

Not the only Way

too Komplex, to many part, truss couldn’t be calculated, structure was not strdie enough, feet would lift up

Since the launch site at FAR, California, was chosen and a provided launch tower could be used, the project was canceled. Even though the launch rail now used already exists, a custom-made rail attachment was designed to facilitate simultaneous release and ensure correct tolerances.

A new Beginning

Since a launch rail was still needed to meet Nixus’s exit velocity requirements, the existing design was revisited and adapted for the new rocket. The vehicle required a longer rail, so the components that had proven effective were repurposed and integrated into an improved system.

How to make it real

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CRYOSPHERE – ROAD TO LAUNCH

Over a decade ago, Project Cryosphere embarked on an ambitious endeavor to construct our most formidable rocket to date, marking a significant milestone in our 60-year history. The outcome is a behemoth of a student rocket, the EX-3. Generating an astounding thrust exceeding one ton, our aim is to soar to a flight altitude of 35 kilometers, surpassing the height of Mount Everest approximately four times. With this we also aim to beat the existing world record for cryogenic rockets developed by students. Powering our rocket is a hybrid engine fueled by liquid oxygen (LOX) and hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), propelling the rocket to a velocity three times faster than the speed of sound, reaching a maximum acceleration of 8g.

Today, we are thrilled to announce the highly anticipated launch campaign for Project Cryosphere. After months of dedicated hard work, we are delighted to share that the EX-3 is now completed, representing a significant milestone in our mission. The launch site chosen for this momentous occasion is the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) facility, nestled within the awe-inspiring Mojave Desert in California. This picturesque location provides an ideal environment for the EX-3 to take flight, offering vast open spaces and optimal safety measures for the launch of such a massive rocket.

Excitement is building as our dedicated team prepares to embark on this transnational adventure. We are thrilled to announce that our team will be arriving in the United States on July 2nd 2023, kicking off the monumental launch campaign. As we stand on the precipice of this historic moment, we invite you to join us in witnessing the culmination of years of hard work, ingenuity, and perseverance as we eagerly anticipate the long-awaited launch of our rocket!

Launch Live Stream – https://www.youtube.com/@WARR_TUM
Cryosphere “Road To Launch” – https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct4kmkKr4wU/

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