The story of AnTARES (Aerospace Technology and Rocketry Engineering Studentteam) begins in 2023, when the idea for Belgium’s first student rocketry team was thought up by Zoë Lorrez. She was a first year student studying computer sciences at Ghent University who wanted to foster competitive spirit and make scientific contributions by encouraging fellow students to engage in the design, production and launch of high-powered rockets. From its inception, the ultimate goal was to compete in the European Rocketry Challenge - EuRoC.

During the early days of the team, focus was primarily on research, recruitment and attracting sponsors. We did not yet have a workspace, and nobody in the team had ever built a high power rocket before. Meetings were conducted in student restos, campus libraries or whatever empty room we could get access to for the day. Although a lot of research was performed, progress was slow. By the end of 2024, the team still didn’t have its own workspace and hadn’t accomplished much. Members were starting to lose interest or finishing their studies, which caused development of the rocket to stagnate. But the idea lived on.

In 2025, Matteo, Nicholas and Loren took over the reins. By April, AnTARES was officially founded as a non-profit organisation. The team was rebooted over the summer and a new round of recruitment and attracting sponsorships began, breathing new life into the dream of building rockets and competing at EuRoC. By October, the team moved into its first workspace. Things were now moving fast, and the design of our first rocket was quickly starting to take shape. 

In February 2026, the team had completed a number of material tests, a prototype of the flight computer electronics and a first mockup airframe. All of these were shown off at the Divergent Student Fair, an event targeted at fellow students hosted by a collective of student teams in Ghent. We stood out due to the exclusive use of bio-based composites in our airframe, a more sustainable alternative to traditional composites we developed.

Progress didn’t slow down, and the now significantly expanded team quickly set its sights on a first flight-ready vehicle intended to perform a test flight up to 1500m ahead of EuRoC 2026. In the following months, the design was finalized, simulations were run, the launch rail was designed and built, the completed flight computer was powered on for the first time and the recovery system underwent successful testing. By May, everything came together as we finished the production process of the airframe for our first rocket. The team worked tirelessly and completed the entire production process in less than 10 days. Scorpion I, the first flight capable rocket designed and built by AnTARES, made its debut at the Advanced Engineering expo in Flanders Expo, Ghent. 

Not long after, the team was overjoyed when we learned we had been selected to participate in EuRoC 2026. It had been a long and at times difficult journey to get there, but this selection was the ultimate validation that our hard work and effort paid off. We will now be the first team to represent Belgium at EuRoC and become the first team in Europe to launch an airframe constructed entirely out of bio-based composites. The excitement has only just begun. However, as we get ready to launch Scorpion I this summer and turn our eyes toward Scorpion II, the rocket which will proudly fly the Belgian Tricolor up to 3000m in Portugal this October. Follow the journey to EuRoC on our socials: https://www.instagram.com/antaresgent