In the next in our series on the latest EW BrightSparks of 2025, we profile Harry Ford, a Test Bench and GSE Engineer at HyImpulse.
Achievements
Harry was nominated for the award by his mentor at the University of Glasgow, Jack Tufft, who knows all about EW BrightSparks as he was a winner in 2022 – he was the founder of GU Rocketry, the University of Glasgow’s student-led rocket development programme.
We learned that Harry Ford is a recent graduate of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Glasgow. And he now works at HyImpulse, a UK/German orbital launch service provider.
While at university, he joined GU Rocketry as a member of the Propulsion team and, at the time, the team was focused on developing Chimera, a 500N hybrid rocket engine. Harry immediately stood out as an extremely driven individual, we heard, and he was selected to be the new Head of Propulsion once this engine was successfully tested in 2023.
The team then moved from hybrid to liquid bi-propellant rocket engines, which represents a huge step up in technical complexity. Harry led all aspects of the design and successfully hot-fired a liquid oxygen/IPA engine at the Race2Space competition in 2024. Indeed, the team became the only student team in the UK to have successfully tested a cryogenic rocket engine. It completed multiple tests pushing the engine beyond its design point.
Harry remained in the Head of Propulsion role for the following year and managed the design of the team’s new flight-weight engine, Icarus. Harry and the team made the decision to move away from using liquid oxygen as a propellant and switched to nitrous oxide. This decision was pushed forward by Harry as nitrous oxide simplifies vehicle design and propellant loading ConOps (Concept of Operations), allowing for a streamlined path to an integrated bipropellant rocket.
At the 2025 Race2Space competition, Harry and the propulsion team successfully hot-fired Icarus using two different injector architectures. Although both injectors were damaged during the test campaign, the team gained valuable lessons in design and plan to implement them in the next iteration of the engine, we heard.
His nominator added:
“While Harry was in his final year at university and leading the Propulsion team, he assisted with an initiative that I started within the Space and Exploration Technology Group. This project involved developing an end-to-end educational tool in MATLAB to guide a user through the preliminary stages of rocket engine development. The tool was named Open Rocket Combustion Analysis (ORCA) and it aimed to reduce the barrier to entry into the rocket engine design field. Harry dedicated his masters project to this and I had the pleasure of co-supervising him.”
“Harry produced an exceptional module for ORCA and also authored a conference paper at AIAA SciTech 2025 in Orlando, Florida. This paper was presented alongside the primary paper for ORCA and was well received by industry and academia in attendance.”
Aside from rocketry development, it was also noted that Harry held roles within the University of Glasgow’s racing team, UGR, throughout his degree. And he also resurrected the university’s Design, Build, Fly team and led the project as Team Principle.
These different interests came close together when, as the 2023/24 academic year came to a close, Harry successfully tested GU Rocketry’s first liquid bi-propellant rocket engine, then drove to Silverstone to compete at the Formula Student competition with UGR, then flew to Germany to compete in Design, Build, Fly… all within the month of July.
“This impressive feat is just one example of how Harry has committed himself to developing his skills and knowledge during his time at university.”
After graduating with a First Class Masters degree, Harry has now started working as a Test Bench and GSE Engineer at HyImpulse at their new Glasgow office.
“This position was not a graduate role and Harry was able to secure the job via the vast experience he gained during his academic career. The launch industry in the UK is currently extremely competitive as no company has reached orbit yet. As the industry expands, I fully expect to see Harry thriving and becoming a well-known expert in his field.”
Electronics Industry ViewpointStewart Edmondson, CEO of the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF), also shared his viewpoint on Harry’s entry.
Stewart highlighted, for example, his pursuing a student interest into an industry role.
“An outstanding student who is now excelling at an innovative space-sector company. Harry is a first-class graduate who has successfully transferred his student interest in rocket propulsion into an industry role.”
Community
In the activities already mentioned, Harry has committed himself to not only leading teams, but also educating junior members, we learned.
In his role as Head of Propulsion, for example, he organised weekly meetings to check on technical progress. Supplementary to these meetings, Harry also organised a number of group and one-to-one design meetings covering a variety of topics. These included CAD basics, engine design fundamentals, and data processing.
We heard there was great feedback from these sessions from junior members. And his nominator believed he has helped to ensure technical competence within GU Rocketry is maintained.
Harry has also made himself available for multiple open days for the School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow. At these events, he talks to prospective students about the extracurricular activities available at the university and the impact they have had on his overall education. He has also attended visits to local high schools via GU Rocketry’s STEM outreach programme.
Aside from these contributions in his ‘official’ roles within various projects, Harry is also very active on the UK Student Rocketry Discord, we learned.
This Discord channel was created as part of the Race2Space competition. It aims to give students a community between institutions to discuss all rocketry related activities, from launching solid rocket motors to liquid rocket engine development. Harry’s main focus was on giving/receiving feedback on propulsion related matters. And has apparently become a well known figure across the UK student rocketry scene as a result.
His nominator concluded:
“Throughout my time working with Harry, it has always been clear to me that he will make time for anyone who does not fully understand a topic or requires assistance. I am confident that this attitude will not leave him and I expect it to take him far in his career as he builds this supportive reputation for himself.”
Congratulations to Harry Ford!
See also: Elektra Awards 2025 – The Winners
