The specially developed rocket ‘FRoDO-M’ (‘Fantastic Rocket of Darmstadt Origin’) lifted off from the launch site in Santa Margarida on 12 October 2024 after around two years of intensive development work. The team achieved an almost perfect result with a flight altitude of 2,993.7 metres and even set an approach record at the target altitude of 3,000 metres. Project manager Jonas Klein said: ‘We are proud to bring our first major rocket series “FroDO” to a successful conclusion with the launch of “FRoDO-M” in Portugal. Then to finish in third place is a great result and a reward for all the hard work of recent months.’

Technological milestones and international cooperation

The impressive precision of the ‘FRoDO-M’ was made possible by the use of a height control system developed in-house. With a total of six nozzles, the rocket can precisely control its height in both the upward and downward direction. At a pressure of 300 bar, the system can generate a thrust of up to 15 newtons and influence the height by up to 50 metres. The ‘FRoDO-M’ is the third and final rocket of the ‘FRoDO family’ and combines all the technical expertise and experience gained from the previous developments and launches.

In addition to technical successes, the launch of the rocket also promoted international cooperation: four partners were able to test their payloads on board the ‘FRoDO-M’. These included the French team Air-ESIEA, which tested a new flight computer, and the Swiss EPFL team, which conducted experiments under the high acceleration forces of the rocket flight. Another highlight was the participation of a group of students from the Kaiserin-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Bad Homburg, who took part in the project with their own payload.

Challenges and prospects

Although the rocket launch was a complete success, the flight also revealed potential for improvement: a technical error caused the main parachute of ‘FRoDO-M’ to open prematurely, causing the rocket to lose its nose cone. Despite this incident, the rocket landed gently and was recovered undamaged, except for the missing nose cone. ‘Mistakes like this happen,’ said Klein. ’The important thing is to learn from them to avoid similar ones in the future.’

The team also made a technical breakthrough: in addition to the LEDs that made the rocket easily visible during night launches, the team experimented with strain gauges to measure aerodynamic loads. They also used printed circuit boards as the core of the fins – a creative solution that sparked great interest at EuRoC.

Successful participation in the 2024 EuRoC mid-October was an important step for the Rapid team on the road to further professionalisation. In Portugal, the students from TU Darmstadt made valuable contacts with European space teams and gained new insights that will help to further advance the development of their own rocket technology. In the long term, the Rapid team aims to develop its own propulsion systems – an ambitious vision that will further enhance TU Darmstadt's reputation as an innovative space centre.