Sovereignty

Mission Overview

"Sovereignty" is River City Rocketry's entry for the 2026 Spaceport America Cup (IREC) competing in the 10K COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) category. The launch vehicle is designed to carry a functional payload and safely recover the vehicle using a dual-deployment parachute system, with a predicted apogee of 10,618 ft.

Construction & Materials

Following lessons learned from subscale testing, the airframe and nose cone are fully SRAD (Student Researched and Designed). The tubes and nose cone are manufactured in-house using a ~50/50 mass ratio fiberglass and laminating epoxy wrap process.

The vehicle utilizes an epoxyless, modular structure: each coupler is capped by bulkheads tensioned by threaded steel rods, and an internal centering ring reduces the beam length to prevent buckling. The fins and motor retainer are machined from aluminum to improve strength while minimizing thickness, and the fin tabs bolt internally to the motor retainer.

Active Roll Control Payload

The rocket carries a functional payload designed to achieve active roll control for an internal payload chamber. Using IMU sensors and a DC motor, the payload actively counters the roll of the launch vehicle to keep the internal chamber stationary relative to the ground. The system operates on four 18650 Li-Ion batteries and stores all sensor and flight data locally.

Dual Deployment Recovery System

Sovereignty utilizes a standard dual-deployment tethered recovery system utilizing COTS flight electronics (Blue Raven and StratologgerCF altimeters).

• Drogue Deployment: A 24" CD 2.2 parachute deploys at apogee, initiating a descent rate of 24.6 m/s.
• Main Deployment: An 84" CD 2.2 parachute deploys at 1,300 ft AGL to slow the rocket to a final descent rate of ~6.62 m/s.

All events use primary and redundant black powder ejection charges. The vehicle's location is tracked via dual redundant GPS modules (Featherweight and Telemetrum) housed in the nose cone.