The Cyclone Rocketry Club achieved a significant milestone when its Helios test vehicle reached a club record altitude of 25,000 feet during the Argonia Cup on March 29.
According to Sydney Turner, the club’s president, Helios was the fourth attempt at this kind of altitude after three unsuccessful efforts over several years.
“It was just one of those unbelievable moments when you watch the rocket fly straight and you get to recover it successfully,” Turner said.
Compared to past attempts, Helios more than doubled the club’s previous altitude benchmarks.
Helios also broke speed records, reaching Mach 2.03 — approximately twice the speed of sound.
“It was going so fast that some of our fins came back with actual visual Mach rash,” Turner said, describing the visible signs of air compression and heating on the rocket’s fins.
The rocket is classified as a high-powered rocket, and uniquely, it is not a commercially manufactured model.
“We call it student-researched and developed,” Turner said.
Turner emphasized that members of the club wind their own carbon fiber tubes, machine their couplers and bulkheads and prioritize in-house production.
“It also gives our members a lot of experience that they might have not gained if we just outsourced it somewhere,” Turner said.
According to Turner, two technological features stood out in the Helios design: a piston injection system and a reefing-based recovery system.
The piston system separates the rocket’s sections to deploy the recovery components. Unlike the traditional method with separate drogue and main parachutes, the Helios uses a single main parachute with a reefing system.
When the piston ejects, the reefed parachute is released in a choked state, reducing drag. At a set altitude, line cutters trigger to release the parachute fully, ensuring a controlled, precise descent. This method reduces drift, improving recovery accuracy and making it easier to retrieve the rocket.
“Each year we compete in Spaceport, now called IREC,” Turner said, referencing the International Rocketry Engineering Competition.
Although the competition vehicle was limited to 10,000 feet, Helios was conceived to reach higher altitude capabilities.
“From a high-level design perspective, we could figure out how to get to that 30,000-foot mark,” Turner said.
Helios also marked the club’s first attempt at building and launching a hybrid rocket engine — a significant development.
“This was a huge milestone for the team,” Quinn Sookswat, a junior in aerospace engineering and team lead heading the hybrid engine project, said. “We had the idea floating around for a while, and it took about two semesters of research and design before we were able to static fire the motor for the first time — something the club had never done before.”
Sookswat, who helped lead the development of the hybrid rocket motor — combining a solid rocket fuel component with a liquid oxidizer — noted that hybrid engines offer various advantages in terms of safety.
“Though they are more complex, hybrid engines remove many of the hazards that come with solid rockets,” Sookswat explained.
The club is now focusing on Celine, their competition rocket for IREC, which is set to launch in early June in Midland, Texas. Like Helios, Celine has student-designed and fabricated components, including a piston system and reefed recovery, but adds air brakes to help hit the 10,000-foot target precisely.
“You get points by how close you are to your altitude category,” Turner said.
Turner emphasized the impact of past failures and the lessons they offered.
“After learning from our failures, we’re proud to have finally achieved success with Helios,” Turner said. “The accomplishments of Helios and our hybrid rocket engine mark a turning point for this team.”