The partnership news comes with official acceptance into the prestigious UK-based Race2Space 2026 International Propulsion competition.

The University of Limerick (UL) Aeronautical Society High-Powered Rocketry Team (ULAS HiPR) has announced a partnership with UL and Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) to design and produce the first additive manufactured (3D-printed) liquid rocket engine in the Republic of Ireland, called the Lúin of Celtchar.

The engine is a high-performance 2 kilonewton, water-cooled, IPA/nitrous oxide bi-propellant system, which has been designed entirely by the ULAS HiPR student team and is now being manufactured at IMR’s Advanced Manufacturing Lab in Mullingar using metal additive manufacturing. It will be returned to UL for precision machining and assembly. 

Established in 2022, ULAS HiPR has more than 100 members and is a combination of students from a range of disciplines, such as aeronautical, mechanical, software and design engineering – all of whom have an interest in designing, manufacturing and launching powerful rockets. 

The team has enjoyed some success having represented Ireland internationally at prestigious competitions, including Mach-24 and Euroc, the European Rocketry Challenge. Alongside the announcement of the partnership, ULAS HiPR has also officially been accepted into the UK-based Race2Space 2026 International Propulsion competition.

This is, according to ULAS HiPR, “a major milestone in advancing Irish student-led space propulsion capabilities”.

Speaking on the announcement, Jay Looney, the co-head of ULAS HiPR, said: “The acceptance of our project to Race2Space marks a defining moment not only for ULAS HiPR, but for Ireland’s student space community. 

“The selection of the first additively manufactured liquid rocket engine in the Republic of Ireland into the competition validates the technical ambition of our student team, and the strength of collaboration between Irish university students with industry. It demonstrates that world-class propulsion innovation can now be designed, manufactured and tested entirely here in Ireland.”

Mark Hartnett, a design for manufacturing senior technologist at IMR, added: “At IMR, supporting ambitious student teams like ULAS HiPR reflects our commitment to strengthening Ireland’s advanced manufacturing ecosystem and enabling the next generation of aerospace innovators. 

“These are vital platforms for advancing cutting-edge technologies and building Ireland’s future engineering capability, and this ULAS HiPR propulsion project demonstrates how emerging technologies can move rapidly from concept to high-performance hardware.”

In late February, Silicon Republic attended the official launch of Ireland’s first European Space Agency Phi-Lab, which is headquartered at IMR in Mullingar and run in collaboration with the AMBER Centre at Trinity College Dublin.

One of 10 European Phi-Labs, it is designed to be Ireland’s national platform for space technology development and to anchor the country’s ambitions within Europe and the world’s rapidly-expanding space economy.

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