A USC student group has successfully built and tested the world’s first civilian rocket, called Aftershock II, to reach an altitude of 470,000-feet. The test took place on October 20 in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert rocket launch area.
This iteration of the rocket comes quipped with a new avionics unit and improved safety as well as data integration. The 330-pound Aftershock II rocket managed to reach a velocity of 5283 ft/s and Mach 5.5. It was able to survive hypersonic speeds thanks to a thermal protection system that included new paint and titanium-coated fins.
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This achievement represents several engineering firsts. Aftershock II is distinguished by the most powerful solid-propellant motor ever fired by students and the most powerful composite case motor made by amateurs. Thermal protection at hypersonic speeds is a major challenge at the industry level, and the protective paint system that we developed performed perfectly, enabling the rocket to return largely intact,” said Ryan Kraemer, executive engineer of USCRPL and an undergraduate student majoring in mechanical engineering.
