Every year, the NCSU High Powered Rocketry Club's experimental team selects a new, experimental project attempting something we've never done before. This year, as the team lead I was responsible for leading the team's 2025-2026 project: a high powered rocket capable of reaching mach 3.
With this project come a variety of challenges, the biggest being the flight ceiling. As an east coast team, our flight ceilings are significantly limited, with the highest ceiling we can afford to travel to being just 17,000 ft in Bayboro, NC. As such, the challenge isn't just surviving the aerodynamic loadings at Mach 3, but optimizing a rocket that can do so at altitudes lower than almost all hobby rockets that've reached such speeds.
This project is still ongoing, meaning that this page will continue to be updated with images until approximately April, 2026.