SHAH ALAM – Eight months of designing, building and testing rockets paid off for two Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) student teams, which earned international recognition at the TeknoFest Turkiye 2026 Rocket Competition.
The teams, PUTRA-2 and CYGNUS-1, returned with two honours from the September competition, with PUTRA-2 securing third place in the International Category while CYGNUS-1 won the Best Original Rocket Design Award.
Held in Aksaray, Turkey, the competition brought together approximately 44 teams from several countries, giving the Malaysian students an opportunity to test their engineering skills against international competitors.
Behind the awards were months of calculations, simulations, fabrication and testing as the students worked to turn their rocket designs into functioning machines.
Representing the university under the Putra Space Club UPM (PSCUPM), the 25-member delegation built on the club's progress in 2025, when its first team to compete independently, PUTRA-1, won the Silver Award and Most Inspiring Team Award.
This year, the club returned with two teams and more demanding technical projects.
PUTRA-2 developed several engineering features, including a detachable fin mechanism and a rotatable avionics bay fitted with a damping mechanism.
CYGNUS-1, meanwhile, carried an experimental payload designed to study vibrations during rocket launch, flight, ejection and ground impact.
The teams' achievements were also backed by growing industry support, with 25 partners contributing funding, materials, technical expertise, machining services, components and other resources in 2026, compared with five sponsors the previous year. The combined support was worth six figures.
Beyond the competition, the delegation visited Yildiz Technical University and Istanbul Technical University to learn more about rocket engineering, propulsion laboratories and engine testing facilities.
The club hopes to pass on the knowledge gained to future members, ensuring that the experience contributes to the development of the next generation of student engineers.
With the international recognition behind them, the students are now preparing for the International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) 2027, where they plan to compete in the 30,000-foot category.
The club aims to become the first Malaysian university team to launch a student-built rocket to an altitude of 30,000 feet.