Development programme
Rockets built to isolate risk, validate new systems in flight and carry proven technology into larger competition vehicles.
Experimental flight · 2026 · Vehicle 04
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Two stages · 6.4 km target
Dullahan is HiPR's two-stage rocket, developed outside the competition programme to attempt a new Irish altitude record. A booster lifts the vehicle before the upper stage continues under its own power.
6.4 km target apogee
The sustainer carries its own flight computers and batteries in an upper avionics bay. This stage continues the ascent after separating from the booster.
Dedicated upper-stage avionics
Both stages carry their own recovery hardware. After separation, the booster and sustainer must each return safely under parachute.
Recovery in both stages
The interstage joins the two vehicles for the first part of the ascent. Separation releases the sustainer, leaving the spent booster to descend on its own recovery system.
Booster → sustainer
A second avionics bay sits below the interstage. The booster carries its own electronics and power alongside its recovery hardware.
Dedicated lower-stage avionics
The lower motor provides the initial lift for the complete vehicle. Once its work is done, the upper stage carries on without the mass of the booster.
First powered stage
Dullahan · Next launch planned
The first launch attempt was scrubbed due to weather.
Active roll-control demonstrator
Sguaba Tuinne is HiPR's flight-test vehicle for active roll control. Canards mounted in the nose alter the vehicle's roll in flight, creating a practical route from wind-tunnel data to closed-loop control on a rocket.
The first campaign was cut short by a motor failure. Rebuilt and reflown, the vehicle subsequently demonstrated the experimental canard system in flight and supplied the data needed to scale the architecture toward supersonic vehicles.
Pneumatic recovery demonstrator
Feth Fiada was built to move HiPR's CO₂ recovery concept out of the workshop and into repeated flight. The 3-inch vehicle used a servo-driven, flame-hardened steel piston to pierce a 16-gram CO₂ cartridge and pressurise the recovery bay.
Three flights exposed the system to real launch loads and recovery conditions. Each test informed the larger twin-cartridge assembly later integrated into Badhbh.
First high-powered vehicle
Sionna was HiPR's first high-powered rocket: a 3-inch vehicle built to establish the team's manufacturing, launch and flight operations before the first international competition campaign.
It flew stably on a J motor to approximately 1.5 kilometres during International Rocketry Week in Glasgow. The recovery failure provided the operational lessons carried into EuRoC 2024.
Sionna · 1.34 m
Flight testing turns new mechanisms, avionics and control ideas into systems the competition programme can trust.