Material Girl Launch Report

Abstract

Material Girl was a two-stage sounding rocket designed and flown during the 2022-2023 academic year. Weighing a total of 197 lbs and measuring 176 inches in length, the vehicle incorporated many improvements from the team's previous rocket, Mr. Blue Sky. The rocket used a Student Researched and Developed (SRAD) P-class motor on each stage, a mechanical staging system, and recovery systems for the booster, sustainer, and nose cone. Flight events were controlled by a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) avionics flight computer, with a custom flight computer carried as a payload. The motor grain geometry and fin dimensions were optimized using an in-house software developed from RASAero and RocketPy.