Watch: Students compete in world's biggest rocket firing competition in Aylesbury Vale

Westcott Venture Park held what has been described as the world’s largest rocket firing competition.

Video footage showing some of the university students that participated in the contest firing a rocket has been released and can be viewed online here.

More than 300 students from 32 universities have signed up to take part in the ongoing competition, which is held in Aylesbury Vale site that also was used for Britain’s Cold War rocket programme.

Called, Race2Space, the contest involves teams traveling to the site near Aylesbury between June 25 and July 11, to “hot-fire” (ignite) rocket engines which they have spent the last year designing and building from scratch.

Race2Space is designed to challenge university students to tackle complex, real-world engineering problems that cannot be dealt with behind a desk.

Dr. Alistair John, programme lead for aerospace engineering at the University of Sheffield, and co-founder of Race2Space, said the UK space sector urgently needed a new generation of highly-skilled engineers

“There’s no shortage of talent in Britain, but if the UK wants to lead in the global space race, we need more graduates with real-world, hands-on experience,” he said. “Race2Space gives students exciting opportunities to work on complex, real-life challenges, often for the first time, helping to create a pipeline of ‘job-ready’’ graduates which the sector so desperately needs.”

He added: “The UK can’t afford to overlook untapped potential. With women making up just 29% of the UK space workforce and significant underrepresentation among ethnic minorities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, the sector is missing out on a vast reservoir of talent. We’re working to change that by creating accessible, practical opportunities for students of all backgrounds to enter and thrive in one of the UK’s fastest-growing high-tech industries.”

ProtoLaunch, a propulsion engineering company based at Westcott, will provide students with access to professional test facilities. The company has already hired two Race2Space participants over the past two years.

Competitors are ranked in three categories liquid, hybrid, and aerospike, with awards given for technical performance, team spirit and innovation. Winning teams are announced on July 11.