ISTANBUL: Saudi Arabia’s Desert Falcons team won second place in the international A4 category of the Rocket Competition at TEKNOFEST 2026 in Turkiye, securing the position in its first participation in the competition, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Sunday.
The “Desert Falcons” team is affiliated with Midana for Testing and Evaluation. The achievement came after an international competition involving 30 teams from 10 countries in the qualifying stages.
Thirty teams representing Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Algeria participated in the qualifying rounds for the international A4 category. Teams from six countries advanced to the final launch stage.
The Rocket Competition is one of TEKNOFEST’s competitions aimed at fostering young people’s interest in space technologies, developing their engineering capabilities, and encouraging research and innovation in future technologies, according to SPA.
The competition provides practical experience that begins with design and manufacturing and concludes with systems testing and launch.
The Desert Falcons team consists of nine members from various engineering disciplines, with expertise spanning mechanical systems, aerospace, and electronic systems.
Their combined expertise enables them to work on the rocket’s various components and systems as part of an integrated engineering project.
