This project has been discontinued by OSU AIAA.
This page is no longer updated and is used a historical documentation of a past project.
The Oregon State High Altitude Rocket Team (HART) is the only 2-stage rocket team at OSU. We aim to advance amateur rocketry to new heights, raising the bar each year. Our goal this year is to reach 100,000ft above ground level.
In 2017, HART launched OSU's first student-developed two-stage rocket reaching 80,000 feet AGL in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.
7 years later in 2024, HART completed a full scale flight at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) launch site. The 77 lbs and 13.25 ft long Heartbreaker V3 became the first HART full-scale rocket to have a perfect flight. It reached 64,000 feet and Mach 2.63 in the Mojave Desert.
Watch a recap of our successful flight at FAR
Standing over 13 feet tall, HARTbreaker V3 represents the hard work and unrelenting spirit of the team that put it together.
On December 18th of 2023, the team conducted their first full-scale of the year, which ended in a failure after a computer malfunction on the sustainer.
On March 30th of 2024, the team conducted a boosted dart flight, where only the booster fires during flight. The sustainer achieved an apogee (maximum altitude) of 16,936 feet, however the recovery systems failed after computer malfunctions on the booster.
The lessons learned from these flights and those of teams before, helped materialize the success of HARTbreaker V3 that flew to 64,016 feet apogee at FAR on May 18th of 2024.
With the data gathered from HARTbreaker V3, we can move towards evolving our rocket design, to achieve higher altitudes and higher reliability.
HART welcomes members of any major from any discipline. We have 4 sub-teams that all contribute to the mission, with the 2024-2025 year re-introducing the Aerodynamics sub-team to conduct real data analysis to optimize rocket structure and performance.
Avionics & Recovery
The Recovery/Avionics sub-team plans in-flight events (drogue deployment, main chute deployment, separation, ignition) based on simulations of our rocket's expected performance parameters.
The sub-team has a uniquely difficult task, as 75% of rocket launch failures happen in the recovery phase.
The sub-team designs and manufactures the avionics bays and ejection charge canisters for both stages.
The sub-team designs the recovery system, including parachute placement, connection methods, and flight computer programming.
Structures
The Structures sub-team designs and manufactures the airframe, fins, couplers, and the nose cone, mainly using composites such as fiberglass and carbon fiber.
The testing and simulations include Instron testing, impact testing, FEA, and FVA. In between manufacturing, our Structures team assists the Recovery team with ejection.
Propulsion
The Propulsion sub-team mixes, cures, and characterizes the two unique solid rocket motors:
Both stages use “Black Flame”, a propellant mix with a slower, longer burn to cruise in more ideal conditions at higher altitudes.
In previous years, the lower stage (Booster) used a high-thrust, fast-burn propellant mix, “Liquid Sand”, to maximize lift off the ground.
Both propellant formulations (Liquid Sand & Black Flame) were developed specifically for our program around 2020.
The sub-team performs sub-scale and full-scale static fires at the Corvallis Airport and analyzes the test data.
Aerodynamics
The 2024-2025 school year re-debuts the Aerodynamics team as a separate sub-team from Structures
The goal for this sub-team is to optimize structure design, such as fins, placement of vent holes, nosecone shape, among many other design choices.
This is done using simulation software and wind tunnel testing, Aerodynamics works closely with Structures as a result.
2016-2017 | In 2017, HART launched OSU's first student-developed two-stage rocket reaching 80,000 feet AGL in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The Booster and Sustainer ignition were successful and the rocket was fully recovered intact, although the chutes did tangle during descent.
2021-2022 | In October 2021, HART became the first rocket team at OSU to successfully launch and recover a 2-stage rocket with our sub-scale “Frankencow 1.0” to roughly 7500ft.
2021-2022 | In January 2022, HART successfully launched and recovered the 2nd successful 2-stage rocket to roughly 7000ft AGL with our "Frankencow 2.0".
2021-2022 | In March 2022, HART successfully launched and recovered a single stage rocket to 28,100ft using our student researched and developed “Liquid Sand” rocket motor.
