The olympiad where the most efficient rocket wins — without ever leaving the ground.
NOTICE: NEW MANDATORY TEAM REGISTRATION FORM AVAILABLE IN THE "COMPETITION" OR "COMPETITION PLATFORM" SECTION.
NOTICE: NEW MANDATORY TEAM REGISTRATION FORM AVAILABLE IN THE "COMPETITION" OR "COMPETITION PLATFORM" SECTION.
The BIRST — Brazilian International Rocket Simulation Tournament — is an educational and recreational initiative aimed at aerospace engineering students and enthusiasts across Brazil and the world.
Using the open-source software OpenRocket, participants design and simulate rockets to complete contextualized and complex missions.
Participation in any phase is FREE, open to anyone interested — Elementary School, High School, and Adult/Open. Subsequent stages are carried out in teams of 1 to 3 participants.
Design and simulate a rocket in OpenRocket that meets the technical requirements of a contextualized mission.
Elementary School, High School, and Adult/Open. Teams of 1 to 3 participants.
Entirely practical test: a single rocket design challenge evaluated by stability coefficient, apogee, and other indices.
FREE and open through June 30, 2026.
Don't miss the deadlines — register now
REGISTER FOR FREENOTICE: NEW MANDATORY TEAM REGISTRATION FORM AVAILABLE IN THE "COMPETITION" OR "COMPETITION PLATFORM" SECTION. Read all rules before participating.
Learn how to design your rocket from beginner to advanced!
Details about the competition platform will be announced closer to the competition date.
Also fill out the Team and Individual Participation Form.
Team and Individual Participation FormThe competition platform will be unlocked by the administrator on the day of the competition. Stay tuned to the schedule and the official BIRST channel.
The competition phase has ended. Please wait for the results to be announced on the official channels.
Run the OpenEarth simulator and simulate the 3D trajectory of your OpenRocket rocket on Google Earth's satellite map!
Run the OpenWind simulator and simulate the real atmospheric winds at your OpenRocket rocket's launch site!
Personal Background
Vinícius Leandro has built a scientific track record from an early age, standing out as an olympic-scientific athlete throughout elementary and high school. During that period, he accumulated participation and awards in more than 30 academic events, establishing himself as a multi-medalist in national and international knowledge olympiads. His main achievement came in the field of applied science, particularly in rocket construction at OBAFOG, where he earned medals, trophies, and records through projects involving different types of propulsion.
Still in high school, he was awarded a Junior Scientific Initiation Scholarship (ICJr) by CNPq, deepening his knowledge in rocket engineering and the scientific method. During that period, he conducted experiments, prepared academic reports, and led socio-educational workshops. He currently remains in the ICJr program as a mentor responsible for reviewing and evaluating reports and oral presentations by new scholarship recipients.
Lattes CV: lattes.cnpq.br/6222518069411986
"The Brazilian Rocket Simulation Olympiad is an olympiad of olympic students, for olympic students. In an attempt to expand the impact of my rocket workshops — where I have had the honor of teaching simulation to two record-breaking OBAFOG teams (level 5 - 2024) — I found in the creation of BIRST a powerful alternative. Simulations, above all, are capable of promoting a great deal of theoretical learning about the aerospace field while still being a fully hands-on activity. They also come with the non-negotiable bonus of safety: certainly due to the virtual and non-physico-chemical nature of rocket production, but also because of the acquired ability to predict and correct, through simulations, real physico-chemical events such as explosions, deviations, and adversities of all kinds. As a real scientific experiment — albeit virtual — it explores not genius, but the effort and enthusiasm of a genuinely curious student who, in most cases, does not have enough autonomy to take the reins of their own participation in olympiads. At BIRST, this is different from the very registration stage, which is individual per participant. Don't be fooled! BIRST values autonomy, but also teamwork: for the competition, students will organize into teams of 1 to 3 members. Call it what you want: a test, a secret mission, or even a weekend game — we promise it will be a rewarding challenge. It will consist of a deadline, roughly one week, to study a problem scenario set in the real world of aerospace engineering. Of course, the participant's responsibility will be to develop a technical rocket design that solves the problem. The secret to taking off will be the broadest possible mastery of the subject of simulations. Before that, I will be available to teach everything necessary for a good and fair challenging assessment :)"