Lancing Pupils Soar in CanSat National Finals with Successful Rocket Launch

CanSat is a national STEM competition run by the UK Space Agency and European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO-UK), challenging students to design and build a simulation of a real satellite that fits inside the volume of a soft drink can. Once launched by rocket, the ‘CanSat’ must complete a scientific mission as it descends back to Earth, transmitting and storing data for analysis.

Out of 300 entries, only nine teams were selected to attend the CanSat National Finals – including our pupils’ team – Lancing Skylink. The team thoroughly enjoyed the trip to the University of York, proud to represent the school at such a prestigious event.

Launch day at Elvington Airfield brought beautiful sunny skies, allowing the team to visually track their satellite as it descended under the white and yellow handmade parachute.

The CanSat functioned successfully, collecting and storing data on temperature, pressure, altitude, and light intensity. The stabilising fins deployed automatically once the satellite was ejected from the rocket, and all failsafe mechanisms worked perfectly to prevent premature deployment inside the rocket. This key part of the mission was a great success.

The team retrieved data confirming the satellite was deployed at an altitude of 350 metres. This precise moment was clearly visible in both the altitude and light intensity readings. The data was clean and showed very few anomalies.

Throughout the day, the onboard camera transmitted a live video feed, which members of the school community were able to watch remotely.

The team also delivered a confident and engaging presentation to the judges. While they were not crowned the final winners, all members agreed that the experience taught them valuable new skills. Each team member has earned the Engineering Cadets Gold Award – a truly excellent addition to their future university applications.

Well done, team Lancing Skylink!