Day by day, the launch day for the Small Rocket Project (SRP) is getting closer. Now that the launch day is less than 2 weeks away, the final tests are done in order to make sure that everything is in order for the launch on the 20th of May. On the 22nd of April, the…
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One small step for an egg, one giant leap for Egg-kind. Every year, Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) has the Small Rocket Project (SRP). During the SRP, aspiring DARE members have the opportunity to build their own rocket in a small team of 8 to 10 people. Under the supervision of their experienced mentor, they…
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Stratos II+ took off at 16:33 CEST on the 16th of October and reached 21457 meters altitude setting a new European altitude record for amateur rocketry. We had a picture perfect flight from the El Arenosillo launch site yesterday. While we didn’t make the 50 km altitude, we did break the record and so far…
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We just received the final go from the INTA personnel at the El Arenosillo launch base to launch the Stratos II+ again this afternoon. Our launch window opens at 16:00 CEST and we will start our preparations around 11:00 to make the launch happen at 16:00 or slightly later. You can again watch the launch…
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Today is going to be the day, we are go for launch! We expect to launch some time after 11:00 CEST in the morning (09:00 GMT) assuming good weather conditions. Follow the launch live as we try to launch the Stratos II+ rocket to 50 km altitude. The launch countdown procedures take over 4 hours…
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Tuesday evening we decided to delay the launch attempt for one day to Thursday the 15th. The team had worked non-stop from early in the morning trying to make the launch happen today. While the planned system tests for the day went fairly smooth, some unresolved issues were found while doing the final countdown rehearsal. It…
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One of the key systems of the Stratos II+ rocket is the Flight Termination System (FTS). The FTS ensures a safe launch ensuring that the rocket does not fly anywhere where it is not supposed to fly. In this blog post we’ll discuss the details of the FTS. Safety ensured To ensure safety during the…
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The last two days we saw a lot more system tests including dealing with our nemesis from last year; testing the Flight Termination System (FTS). As you probably heard by now we also decided to delay the first launch attempt to Wednesday the 14th of October. The reason for this delay was luggage getting lost…
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One of the first questions people will ask when you tell you’re planning to launch a rocket is: “But where does it land?”. If you are flying to a few hundreds of meters altitude this question may be easy to answer using some simple calculus. When you however start to mix in supersonic speeds, weather…
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With Summer in our wake and the Holiday season still a couple of months away, we enter our favourite part of the year: The DARE Launch Season. As you may recall, last September/October we travelled to the south of Spain, to the INTA’s El Arenosillo launch base, where we attempted to launch our Stratos II…
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