The focus of the Two-Stage Rocket (2025) is the development of a two-stage high-altitude research rocket. It will fly with a student researched and developed (SRAD) hybrid motor in the booster and a commercially built M-class solid motor in the upper stage. The vehicle will serve as SSTA’s first large scale attempt at building a multistage rocket, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the team and laying the groundwork for the future use of staged vehicles for high-altitude launch attempts. 

The core mission objectives of the 2-stage vehicle are to successfully fly to an apogee of at least 100,000ft with successful stage separation, ignition of the upper stage, and recovery of both stages. 

On a larger scale, the main objective of the project itself is for team members to learn as much as possible about the design, fabrication, and launch processes for multistage rockets and to add multistage capabilities to SSTA’s body of knowledge.