From low-power flights to liquid propulsion, HUAC Rocketry gives students hands-on experience designing, building, testing, and launching aerospace systems.
2027 IREC · 10K COTS
King Crimson is HUAC’s first IREC entry: a single-stage, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) rocket designed for a 10,000-foot competition flight using an AeroTech M2500T motor.
The team has completed 25 launches to date, including 19 low-power and six high-power flights. This category builds on that experience while bringing together vehicle integration, recovery, payload testing, and competition operations.
Vehicle and simulation
The current design is 2.54 m long and 152.4 mm in diameter. OpenRocket models a 10,400 ft apogee, about 329 m/s peak speed, and 23.5 seconds to apogee. These are simulation results, not flight measurements; the team plans to update the model as the vehicle is assembled and measured.
Research payload
The roughly 2.1 kg, 2U-form-factor payload studies whether a cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) reaction can operate after the vibration and acceleration of launch. It uses freeze-dried E. coli extract with no living cells.
Six sealed chambers compare rigid mounting with a TPU vibration-isolating lattice. Sensors record fluorescence, acceleration, and temperature through flight and recovery, with a matching ground-control unit for comparison.
Recovery and avionics
The planned flight sequence is ascent, drogue descent after apogee, then main-parachute descent near 1,500 ft above ground. The recovery concept keeps the vehicle sections tethered together for landing and recovery.
A student-developed flight computer is planned as the primary controller, with an independent commercial altimeter as backup. The team’s ground tests and shakedown flights are intended to validate the integrated recovery system before qualification.
Dual-deploy CAD
Recovery sequence
Concept renderings show the planned recovery sequence, with a drogue parachute followed by main-parachute deployment.
Target schedule · weather and launch-site dependent
Procure components, build the subscale recovery demonstration, and complete ground checks.
Fly the subscale vehicle to demonstrate the deployment sequence, then review flight data and revise the design.
Complete full-scale assembly and ground testing; target a full-scale shakedown flight in Arizona in January.
Reserve an additional development flight if weather, launch access, or test findings require it.
Complete remaining system checks and a qualification flight in the intended competition configuration.
Keep a contingency reflight window and compile the final flight-test report.
Flight systems
RocketLink is a LoRa-based telemetry system that sends live GPS position, altitude, and IMU orientation from a rocket to a ground-station laptop.
The system has been flight-tested on micro-G’s LOX-ethanol K-103 vehicle, connecting onboard flight data with ground operations.
An ESP32-S3 flight board combines an ICM20649 inertial measurement unit, M100 Mini GPS, and RFM96W radio. Packets carry position, altitude, three-axis acceleration and angular velocity, and estimated roll, pitch, and yaw.
A matching ESP32-S3 receiver connects to a laptop over USB. The telemetry viewer displays a live 3D orientation model, sensor readouts, signal strength, and packet rate. A separate map plots GPS position and the flight path once the receiver has a fix.
The ground station saves received packets to numbered CSV files on its SD card. Timestamps, packet counts, radio-link quality, GPS, and inertial measurements support flight reconstruction and post-flight analysis.
Range and update rate depend on configuration and environmental conditions.
Liquid propulsion
FUD-1, Forward Unto Dawn, is a 250-lbf liquid rocket engine designed for ground testing. It pairs nitrous oxide with a 90/10 ethanol-water fuel blend and uses fuel flowing through the chamber wall to carry heat away before injection.
Led by designer Nicholas Bondar, the project brings together combustion analysis, cooling design, injector machining, and test-stand development. The design passed external review in August 2026 and is being prepared for printing.
NASA CEA combustion studies and a sizing spreadsheet establish the engine geometry, with Rocket Propulsion Analysis used to check performance and cooling. The design uses a fuel-rich mixture to balance performance with the chamber's thermal requirements. These are design predictions awaiting test validation.
The chamber and nozzle are designed as one laser powder bed fusion part with integrated cooling passages. An oxidizer-centered pintle injector is machined separately. External review led to channel-corner fillets and clamping features for post-machining; injector hardware has already been machined.
The planned program progresses from cold-flow checks to an initial two-second firing, then longer firings as results support them. Cooling-channel inspection, injector alignment, and potential coolant boiling remain development priorities before hot-fire testing.
Liquid rocket vehicle
Mojave Sphinx is HUAC-R's implementation of Half Cat Rocketry's open-source HCR-5100 liquid-bipropellant rocket. The team manufactured and assembled the reference design, integrating tanks, valves, engine hardware, and avionics to build experience in liquid propulsion.
HUAC-R also fabricated and installed a dedicated static-fire test stand. Bringing the vehicle together gave members practical experience with machining, seals, fluid-system fittings, and mechanical and electrical interfaces.
The initial static-fire attempt was unsuccessful because of fluid-system and sealing issues. The team is developing cold-flow characterization and planning instrumentation to check system behavior before corrective work and another static-fire campaign.
Onboarding · Design, build, fly
New members learn the rocket flight cycle through a hands-on model-rocket project. Students explore OpenRocket to design their vehicle, compare stability and predicted altitude, and see how fins, nose cones, mass, and motor selection affect flight.
The onboarding design uses a C6-5 motor and a 12-inch nylon parachute, with cardboard body and motor tubes, balsa fins and centering rings, and a plastic nose cone. The project introduces component design, assembly, launch preparation, and recovery before members take on larger vehicles.
Member development
Members progress through National Association of Rocketry (NAR) high-power certification levels 1 through 3.
Certification flights provide a structured path to building and flying increasingly capable rockets while developing safe launch and recovery practices.
