Kansas State University’s Wildcat Rocketry team made history by winning first place at the 2025 Argonia Cup, a national collegiate rocketry competition, and breaking a world record in the process. The team became the first from Kansas to win the event, outperforming 19 other university teams. Their competition rocket, Purple Horizon, reached a record-breaking altitude of 35,439 feet, setting a new world record for a commercial-staged L-impulse rocket. It also hit a top speed of 1,050 miles per hour.

K-State scored 61,778 points, beating second-place CU in Space from the University of Colorado Boulder and third-place Purdue Space Program High Altitude. The Argonia Cup challenges teams to fly a two-stage rocket to at least 9,000 feet with a safe recovery. Scores are based on altitude, motor size, and payload—in this case, golf balls.

The K-State team had previously competed since 2018, but this was the first year it fully met scoring criteria. Club president Ben Monday said their strategy prioritized altitude over payload or motor size. The rocket successfully maintained a 20-degree cone alignment between stages for 17 seconds—where many teams failed.

Wildcat Rocketry is part of K-State’s Carl R. Ice College of Engineering.