The University of Minho (UMinho) has initiated the NORTH program, in collaboration with the Portuguese Air Force and aerospace company Omnidea, to develop suborbital launchers reaching altitudes up to 100 kilometres. This initiative aims to promote scientific innovation, train highly skilled engineers, and improve national aerospace research. Activities will be centered at UMinho's School of Engineering in Guimarães and the Alto Minho - Cerval airstrip.

The program’s motto, “North – the direction where the compass needle normally points” highlights the North of Portugal’s emerging role in aerospace. Students, researchers, and professors from UMinho, along with the Air Force Academy, will actively participate in the project.

The program involves hybrid propulsion technology under development at UMinho and aims to create launchers with innovative features such as hybrid propulsion, low-cost lightweight reusable structures, and precise trajectory navigation.

Initially, the launchers will be single-stage systems but will evolve to include supersonic and later, multi-stage designs, where part of the device is discarded during flight for a more efficient ascent. These launchers will follow a ballistic trajectory, reaching high altitudes before descending back to Earth. The NORTH program will also support UMinho's Aerospace Engineering Student Group in the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC), a competition fostering innovation in aerospace technologies among European students.

According to Gustavo Rodrigues Dias, the program coordinator and director of the Aerospace Engineering course at UMinho, this initiative marks a “significant step” in establishing the university as a “centre of excellence” in aerospace.