Flagship I

Our performance-optimized single-stage rocket

Made it go wooooosh.

Soaring to 1km, this rocket validated our second-generation avionics algorithms and won the Malaysian Rocket Competition. Hover to take a closer look.

Recovery System

Consists of a light parachute for easy recovery.

Avionics

The brains and brawns of the rocket.

Aerostructures

The brawns of the rocket.

Recovery

Single-chute architecture.

The single-chute architecture provides a minimal weight, allowing the rocket to reach the target apogee of 1km with the provided motor. This required a careful balance of parameters, to ensure the rocket descended at a safe velocity of 7m/s, minimising potential damage to surrounding personnel and infrastructure while landing within 50m of the original launch site, helping ease of recovery.

Recovery

Always Cool.

Flagship I is the first to feature our natively developed cold gas ejection technology, removing any requirement for pyrotechnics licenses. Using a 16g CO2 cartridge (widely available at sports stores), along with a few 3D printed parts, it reliably provides plenty of ejection force to guarantee successful parachute deployment.

As an affordable, pyrotechnic-free alternative to current commercial solutions, our ejection system has been open-sourced here. Click the Github button to learn more.

Janky-Jet

Avionics

The Perfect Balance.

Size constraints meant that our previous avionics systems would not fit in Flagship I. We did not let that stop us.

Constructed, coded and validated over the course of just one week to meet competition requirements, the all-new avionics in Flagship I utilises a careful balance of speed, cost and reliability to achieve mission success. This shows in the component list below, all readily purchasable off-the-shelf. Paired with our advanced filtering algorithms, they provide a reliable way to guarantee that the parachute deploys at apogee.

Microcontroller

Arduino Nano

Flagship I used an Arduino Nano as an accessible way to achieve sufficient compute power, efficient power consumption and high reliability while lowering iteration and debug times to meet the competition requirements.

Ejection Actuator

SG90 Servo

An SG90 servo served as the ejection actuator, being lightweight, affordable and reliable.

Altimeter

BMP388 Altimeter

This altimeter is coupled with advanced filtering algorithms to provide reliable apogee detection. As Flagship I approached transonic speeds, many self-made systems would have deployed the parachute prematurely. Instead, Flagship I’s algorithm retained its stability and successfully ejected the parachute at the target apogee of 1km.

Battery

All day battery life.

Up to

24 hours

battery life

2x 18650 Lithium ion batteries provide approximately 24 hours of battery life thanks to optimised power efficiency, allowing plenty of test & debugging time without needing to charge up in field conditions.

Aerostructures

Affordable, Quick, Durable.

Who said the holy grail of engineering is impossible? Flagship I utilises a cardboard fuselage, paired with a 3D printed nose cone and quality birch ply fins. The fins are smartly cross-braced with centering rings (that double as firewalls) and reinforced with epoxy root fillets, improving aerodynamics yet retaining enough rigidity.

The result? A rocket that reaches its target apogee of 1km, survives a motor fire, and then safely lands within 50m of its original launch site.

Flight Test

Built Different.

In September of 2025, Flagship I proved itself at the Malaysian Rocket Competition. The motor experienced a fire, but the bulkheads successfully contained it, allowing Flagship I to reach its target apogee of 1km, and then land safely not more than 50m from where it first took off.

This flight performance earned Flagship I the gold medal in its class.