KFUPM ASTROLAB · Student Rocketry Team

From Dhahran to Midland. ASTRO-2 flies at IREC 2027.

A 10,000 ft COTS sounding rocket designed, built and tested by KFUPM students: a systems flight in Saudi Arabia on our own candy motor in January, a full-scale flight on the competition motor in Texas in March, then Midland in June.

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IREC 2027 launch window · Midland, Texas

Flight test 1: Saudi Arabia, 30 Jan 2027Flight test 2: Texas, 27 Feb 2027 (backup 13 Mar)Competition: Midland, Texas, 14 to 19 Jun 2027
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Days
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Min
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to the first launch day

01Track record

Built on results

0nd

TEKNOFEST 2026 Rocket Competition, A4 international category (rocket Falcon-1)

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Flights of ASTRO-1 on team-built candy motors in Saudi Arabia

0st

KFUPM entry to IREC

02The vehicle

Meet ASTRO-2

123456
  1. 1

    Nose cone

    5:1 Von Kármán fiberglass with aluminium tip; houses GPS tracker 1 and the removable apogee-trim ballast

  2. 2

    Payload coupler

    3U functional payload, 2.27 kg, student-built data logger and camera; never separates

  3. 3

    Upper airframe

    96 in Iris Ultra main parachute, deployed at 457 m

  4. 4

    Avionics coupler

    Featherweight Blue Raven and Missile Works RRC3 Sport on separate batteries; GPS tracker 2; external switch band

  5. 5

    Lower airframe

    30 in Iris Ultra drogue, deployed at apogee

  6. 6

    Booster

    AeroTech M2500T-PS (9,671 N·s), four G10 fins with carbon tip-to-tip, carbon boat tail

Length
3.19 m
Diameter
157 mm
Pad mass
27.5 kg
Target apogee
3,048 m (10,000 ft)
Max speed
Mach 0.93
Peak
10.0 g
Rail exit
31.3 m/s
Stability
2.35 cal

03Test campaign

Two flights before the competition

Saudi Arabia, 30 January 2027

Systems flight

Systems flight on a team-built candy motor that has already flown ASTRO-1 twice. Both altimeters, both trackers, the full recovery chain and the payload fly under real loads before the rocket leaves the country.

Texas, 27 February to 13 March 2027

Apogee flight

Full-scale apogee flight on the competition AeroTech M2500T-PS at a Tripoli launch under a Level 3 certified mentor. Calibrates the drag model and fixes the ballast table before the Final Launch Data package.

04Engineering blog

From the workshop

Aerostructures

Sizing ASTRO-2's fins: flutter, wind and the tip-to-tip layup

15 Oct 2026

Testing

Flying ASTRO-1 twice on candy motors: what we learned

28 Sept 2026

Propulsion

Why we chose 10K COTS for our first IREC

10 Sept 2026

Read the Engineering Blog
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Team members

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Engineering sub-teams

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Rockets flown

2026-27

Competition season

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