The design and construction of the Aspire 2 rocket vehicle was the principal reason behind the formation of AspireSpace all those years ago and remains our primary technical objective for the next few years. Aspire 2 will be a reusable sounding rocket capable of launching a 10kg payload to an altitude of just over 100km (i.e. into space). This vehicle will be powered by a LOX/HDPE hybrid engine and will make use of modern lightweight composite materials, including a unique composite LOX tank, the development of which started at Delft University in Holland.

Although much design work has already been undertaken, this has mostly been at a conceptual level, e.g. obtaining an initial mass estimate and performing trajectory simulations. Much detailed design and development of the components and systems for Aspire 2 remain to be done providing many challenges for all of our members. To find out how you can get involved in this exciting project, visit our contacts page.

The latest version of Aspire 2 is a two-stage vehicle, with ADV3 as the top stage, and a large multi-chamber nitrous hybrid as the lower stage.

Our biggest logistical challenge is finding somewhere inexpensive to launch Aspire 2.