Past Projects
Since 2016, UBC Rocket has launched 12 rockets at competitions in both Canada and the United States. We have also launched a couple of Christmas trees.
Team Statistics
Rockets recovered (flight ready): 12
Rockets recovered (obliterated): 1
Christmas trees launched: 2
Christmas trees recovered: 0
Rockets launched: 13
Competitions attended: 11+
Members: 90+
CYPRESS - 10K Single Stage
2017
Cypress was UBC Rocket’s very first competition rocket, with the goal of testing various student-designed modules for future projects. The rocket payload was a modular CubeSAT frame, carrying 3 high school designed CubeSAT units in addition to a camera and various specialized sensors. This was also the first time the team tested various parachute patterns in the campus wind tunnel. Cypress competed in the 2017 Spaceport Amercia Cup and received 1st place in the 10,000ft. Commercial-Off-The-Shelf category, beating out legacy names such as MIT and Caltech!
Blacktusk - 30k Single Stage
2018
Black Tusk was our first attempt at going supersonic using a N-Class motor. We aimed for a minimum diameter rocket to reduce mass and drag that could make it to 30,000 feet on one stage. The CubeSATs that are normally the payload were shrunk down to become PicoSATs to fit inside the rocket. Unfortunately, the rocket had a rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD) at maximum dynamic pressure (MAXQ) during flight and broke in half.
Hollyburn - 10k Single Stage
2019
Hollyburn was an ambitious initiative with the goals of to designing, manufacturing and launching a single stage, 10,000 ft rocket constructed by a team of 1st and 2nd year students in UBC Rocket. The payload comprised of 3 cubeSATs, which were constructed in coordination with two local high schools. Aberdeen High school developed a video surveillance camera device and the Lord Byng team designed a device to test the strength of graphene under 6.74 G of acceleration. Originally scheduled for a 2019 launch in Alberta, smoke from forest fires cancelled this launch and the 2020 & 2021 launches. As a result, Hollyburn never had the opportunity to fly.
SkyPilot - 30k Single Stage
2019
Skypilot was a single stage, 74lb rocket designed to compete in the 30,000 ft COTS category using an N3301 motor. The separation mechanism included a black powder & a CO2 based mechanism, both fully student researched and designed. A student-designed Quadcopter ejected from the rocket at apogee was Skypilot’s original payload, however due to time constraints, it was converted into a 360-degree camera. Skypilot was successfully recovered at IREC 2019 and now guards the rocket lab with a watchful eye.
Co-Pilot - 30k Single Stage
2019
The Copilot project was an experimental SRAD liquid rocket engine that would be compatible with Sky Pilot’s upper assembly. The Co-pilot motor was designed to produce 4000N peak thrust over 5 seconds using a mixture of LOX & kerosene and ignited using a C-Class rocket motor. The final liquid motor design ultimately became too heavy for the thrust it produced, however, the hotfires associated with Co-pilot gave valuable data on the effectiveness of MDF as an ablative. The current Liquid Rocket project still uses the Co-pilot engine for tests involving optimized injector design and advances in heatsink frameworks.
Tatulus - 30k Two-Stage
2019
Tantalus was UBC Rocket's first two-stage solid motor rocket. The project began in 2019, with the goal of reaching an altitude of 30,000 feet. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of what was to be the first Launch Canada competition in 2020, as well as the halting of any in-person manufacturing activities. Undeterred, the team continued to refine and maintain both the design and dream through truly trying circumstances. After three long years, Tantalus finally flew at the inaugural Launch Canada in 2022, in Cochrane, Ontario. Weighing in at ~50 kgs and ~12.5 feet tall, Tantalus became the first multistage rocket to be launched at a Canadian rocketry competition, winning second place in the Advanced Launch category and setting the stage for the team to push the boundaries of student aerospace engineering even further.
Silvertip - 30k Single Stage
2020
Silvertip was one of our most exciting rockets to produce; it competed in the 30k COTS category at the Spaceport America cup in 2022. One of the most prominent components was the design shift away from maximizing altitude to production. A major challenges creating the rocket was the short 2-month design and build cycle. This led to modifications like a 3d-printed boattail but still included previous design ideas such as a replaceable fin rig (commonly our team mounts the fins directly onto the inner motor tube making replacement challenging).
Beauty & the Beast - 30k Two-Stage
2022
‘Beauty & the Beast’ was UBCR’s first two-stage rocket to achieve a nominal stage-separated flight. It used lessons learned from the team’s first two-stage attempt, ‘Tantalus’, and incorporated CNC machined parts wherever possible. As the team’s tallest and heaviest rocket to date, an extremely high-thrust N5800 motor propelled B&B off the launch rail, before a long-burning M3800 motor carried the second stage to apogee. This unique rocket would fly in both the 2023 Spaceport America Cup and the 2023 Launch Canada Competition, winning 1st prize in the Launch Canada Advanced Launch category and the competition overall.
Garibaldi - 30k Two-Stage
2023
Garibaldi is UBC Rocket’s third 30k ft. two-stage rocket and the team’s tallest yet, standing at a massive 442cm tall. What made this rocket different from the other two-stages, Tantalus and Beauty & the Beast, is that it is only 6 inches in diameter. A reduction in diameter significantly decreases drag, making the target apogee of 30,000ft more feasible. It featured a payload experiment, testing microbial fuel cells in hyper- and micro-gravity. Garibaldi achieved a nominal separation flight at the 2024 Launch Canada Competition in Ontario!