The 15 teams that made it to the finals of the TEKNOFEST 2026 Vertical Landing Rocket Competition, to which 331 teams applied, will compete to land their rockets on the target area in a controlled and autonomous manner at the TÜBİTAK SAGE campus between 14-18 September. The competition, which was held for the first time in 2022, is the first competition in the world to be held with the Cold Gas Propulsion System.
The final excitement begins in the Vertical Landing Rocket Competition held within the scope of TEKNOFEST 2026. In the competition conducted by TÜBİTAK, the rockets designed by young engineers will compete not only to take off, but also to land on the ground in a controlled and soft manner. During the final process, which will be held at the TÜBİTAK SAGE campus between 14-18 September, the teams will demonstrate the autonomous landing capability of their rockets with real fires.
Organized under the main leadership of the Ministry of Industry and Technology and the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation), TEKNOFEST encourages young people to develop original solutions in high technology fields, while also allowing students from different disciplines to experience real engineering processes. The Vertical Landing Rocket Competition held within the scope of TEKNOFEST 2026 stands out as one of the most striking examples of this approach.
The Vertical Landing Rocket Competition, held for the first time in 2022, is the first competition in the world to be held using the Cold Gas Propulsion System. In the competition, teams are expected not only to design a rocket, but also to integrate this rocket with the Air Suspension System and land it on the ground in a fully controlled manner after the flight.
In the final launch, the rocket will be lifted to an altitude of approximately 8-10 meters by the Air Suspension System. After the system releases the rocket, the avionics system will automatically activate. The landing process of the rocket will be managed by the Cold Gas Propulsion System and autonomous control system. The critical point of the competition will be the rocket's soft landing on the targeted area with an approach speed between 0 and 0.2 m/s, preserving its structural integrity and without tipping over.
In this respect, the competition enables young people to focus not only on the design and take-off stages of rocket technology, but also on a complex engineering problem in which flight control, avionics systems, mechanical design, propulsion and autonomous systems work together.
331 teams applied to the Vertical Landing Rocket Competition in 2026. Following the application process, 15 teams that successfully completed the competition stages qualified for the finals. While there were a total of 149 members in the finalist teams, the total number of members who applied to the competition was 796. Participants between the ages of 18-29 are participating in the competition from 15 different provinces of Turkey.
Teams consist of at least four and at most 10 people in the competition, where associate, undergraduate and graduate students and graduates studying at home and abroad can participate. Teams must include at least one Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering student and at least one Electrical/Electronics Engineering student. Thus, the aim is for the competitors to work with a systems engineering approach by bringing together different engineering disciplines.
Before the final, the competitors went through a three-stage evaluation process: Preliminary Design Report, Critical Design Report and Shooting Preparation Report.
There will be an intense program for the teams during the final week, which will be held at the TÜBİTAK SAGE campus. Following the entrance to the campus and orientation on September 14, mechanical-electronic controls, weighing and leakage tests will be carried out. In addition to sealing tests, take-off trials will be carried out on September 15 and 16.
Starting from September 16, landing trials, one of the most critical stages of the competition, will begin. After the descent trials with flexible rope, competition shooting will be held on 17 and 18 September. At the end of the five-day final process, the rockets' controlled, autonomous and soft landing performance to the targeted area will be evaluated. A total of 750 thousand TL prize awaits the winning teams in the competition. The first team will win 300 thousand TL, the second team will win 250 thousand TL, and the third team will win 200 thousand TL.
