Sirius launches in the Mojave Desert - July 2024
Rocketry is one of my favourite hobbies! I started off at my secondary school's rocketry society, building small model rockets and designing larger, more ambitious ones; I spent time building model rockets with my family at home and eventually became a leading member of the school rocketry society. These were simple, solid-fuel rockets to launch on the school fields and at the beach, some from Estes kits and others from cardboard tubes and custom 3D printed parts.
I am now the Airframe and Recovery Executive Lead for ICLR (Imperial College London Rocketry), one of Europe's leading innovative student rocketry teams.
I went with ICLR's Altitude Record Team to California in the Summer of 2024 to launch our 2-Stage altitude record attempt rocket, Sirius. My main roles on the team then were in manufacturing and also videography. With my experience in composites, machining and 3D printing, I helped manufacture the main rocket. I also recorded as much of the trip as possible, including interviews with the team and a livestream of the launch event that I set up and ran myself in the 46 degree heat!
The ICLR main team, competes in EuRoC (The European Rocketry Competition) every year. In 2023/24 I designed retractable launch lugs, and a 12m launch rail tower that will be the first of its kind in the UK, enabling the team to run our own launches. In 2024/25 I developed a CNC filament winder machine so that we can manufacture our own composite body tubes and COPV tanks. Most of my 2025 Summer was spent manufacturing Pluto, ICLR's 3rd liquid bi-propellant rocket, and in October 2025 I travelled to Portugal for the EURoC competition, an amazing experience during which I learnt so much from the high-stakes atmosphere and the other incredible student groups.
This academic year (2025/26), I will be leading the Airframe and Recovery sub-team to make improvements on Pluto's design for our new rocket, which will launch in October 2026.
Pictured left is one of my first self-designed model rockets. Featuring an orange parametric motor mount where you can enter the tube, motor and fin dimensions into Fusion 360 and the part can be printed with no supports. The purple nosecone is also a parametric design. Overall, the system allows anyone new to the hobby with access to a 3D printer and cardboard tube to make a rocket!
Pictured right is the rotation mechanism I designed for the ICLR launch rail. The rail will be 12m tall, with capability to expand modularly. It has 3 legs, and launch angle adjustment. I am going to start manufacturing it over the next few months, it's going to be a lot of waterjet cutting and welding so hopefully a lot of fun!
Myself and the ICLR team transporting Pluto to the launchpad on the Santa Margarida Military base, Portugal. Unfortunately Pluto didn't fly, as the fuel pump used for filling fuel into the rocket broke on the launchpad.
Pictured right is Crosshair, a self-sustaining, battery powered reefing line cutter for Pluto's recovery system. Pluto uses one parachute as a drogue and main, with a reefing line that holds it together in the drogue configuration, and is eventually cut by this little guy. The custom PCB was designed by our Electronics Team lead Will; and the casing and cutting wire configuration was designed by myself. The board uses a piece of thin Nichrome wire wrapped around the Dyneema reefing line, which heats up as current is passed through it to cut through the line. As the box leaves the recovery bay of the rocket, a USB-C tether disconnects, telling the board that it has been deployed and that it is ready to dis-reef the parachute at the required altitude. In the case that the rocket does not make it high enough to warrant the use of a reefed chute Crosshair will automatically dis-reef the parachute.
Pluto's Nosecone. Hand-machined and coated in gold-leaf by myself.
Emergency repairs on Pluto's separation system.
Me at the EURoC launch-site in Portugal
Sirius launches in the Mojave Desert
Sirius being installed on the rail
Pluto's first time being lifted to vertical
