Challenge Overview

Are you ready to launch to space?

The Base 11 Space Challenge is a $1M + prize for a student-led team to design, build and launch a liquid-propelled, single stage rocket to an altitude of 100 kilometers (the Karman Line) by December 30, 2021.

The future of the economy resides in space and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) sectors. Indeed, the global space industry is projected to top $3 trillion dollars in the next 30 years, and the White House has re-launched the National Space Council to help accelerate commercial space exploration. Many posit that efficient and affordable space travel is essential to the human race. But the number one resource needed to support the space industry is human capital. The current aerospace talent pipeline is in crisis.

We want to dramatically increase and empower the STEM talent in the United States, and we believe you are the solution.

Rewards

Base 11 will distribute $1.15 million to the winning Competition Teams’ Universities over the course of this three-phase challenge, with a $1 million award being the ultimate prize for the rocket that reaches the 100 Km altitude mark by December 2021. Smaller prizes will be awarded during the three phases for technical achievement and for innovative problem-solving. The monies won from these competitions are intended to help teams defray some of the financial burdens associated with the Challenge. teams defray some of the financial burdens associated with the Challenge.

These prizes will be awarded as follows:

• Best Preliminary Design Award, $50,000 total purse ($25,000 for first place, $15,000 for second place, $10,000 for third place)
• Best Static Test Firing Award, $50,000 total purse ($25,000 for first place, $15,000 for second place, $10,000 for third place)
• Pop-up Innovation Contests, $50,000 total purse

The first team that launches a single stage, liquid-fueled rocket to reach an altitude of 100 Km wins $1M, to be distributed as directed funding as follows:

• $500,000 in restricted funding to the university to support rocketry and other STEM-related educational efforts with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion, and
• $500,000 to the student rocketry team to be disbursed according to the team’s plan submitted at the time of entry.