Designed during the 2019/20 academic year for flight at the 2020 Spaceport America Cup, the 30k Competition Rocket was the largest, most powerful vehicle produced by Duke AERO to date. Using a minimum-diameter carbon fiber body tube construction and a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solid motor, every aspect of the rocket was designed for optimal flight with an apogee of exactly 30,000 feet.
Featuring a new dual deployment recovery system, not only was the rocket the most powerful vehicle to come out of Duke AERO, but it was the safest, with redundancies built in for every critical system. At a length of over 10 feet, the 30k Competition Rocket marked a new era for Duke AERO, one defined by large and powerful rockets in which we carefully refine our abilities to reach orbit.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the launch of this vehicle was delayed, and its design was used as the basis for Coach 30k in 2022.