Ad Astra has flown on M, N & O motors at NZRA events for a number of years.  It was scratch built by Jack Davies from fiberglass and carbon fibre composite materials, and named after the school he was attending at the time, Marsden College. It was renamed to Ad Astra in 2020.

For 2021, Jack and Tony upped their game and added a booster to Ad Astra, creating a two stage rocket which stands six meters tall.  In 2023, It will be boosted by the mighty N5400 in the first stage, which will burn for 2 seconds before being jettisoned.  After a short 3 second coast, a long burn M800 will be ignited, powering the second stage to over 10,000ft.  

Flight Specs

• Length: 6m

• Diameter: 250mm

• Weight: 66kg

• Motor: N5400 "Blue Dragonfly" ,  staging to M800  "Darkstar" -yellow flame, black smoke, sparks  

• Altitude: 11,000 ft

• Velocity: Mach 1 

• Fliers: Jack & Tony Davies

Kim McVinnie's Middle earth - themed Smaug first flew in 2022 with it's maiden flight hitting 22,000ft. A mishap on recovery meant it has been the last 12 months in reapir mode, but it will be coming back for NLD 2023.  

Kim has her sights set on the "M" class altitude record, and will once agan be aiming to hit 22,000ft on a  long burn M915  motor with a 12 second burn time. 

Flight Specs

• Length: 2.9m

• Diameter: 103mm

• Weight: 17kg

• Motor:  M915 "Supernova" - Bright white flame, grey smoke, long burn.  

• Altitude: 22,000 ft

• Velocity: Mach 1.2

• Fliers: Kim McVinnie

Alex Heffer's Frenzy Massive is a  well travelled rocket, having flown both in Australia at the original "Thunda Down Under" in 2015, and multiple National Launch Days here in New Zealand.  The Frenzy massive is fiberglass 'airframe only' kit. Alex has custom built it to his own specifications and redundant electronic recovery systems.  

 This year, the Frenzy massive will get a real 'kick in the pants' from an M2050X providing a maximum 2,500 newtons of thrust and a bright white flame.  Apogee and main chute deployments via dual redundant systems. Altus Metrum Telemetrum GSP flight computer as primary,  Perfect flight Stratologger as backup. 

Flight Specs

• Length: 3.1m

• Diameter: 140mm

• Weight: 20kg

• Motor: M2050X  "Propellant X" - Bright white flame, dense grey smoke.  

• Altitude: 5,900 ft in 14 seconds

• Velocity: Mach 1.48 (1,840 kph)

• Flier: Alex Heffer

The University of Canterbury will be test flying their rocket for the Space Port America Cup competition.  This is held annually in New Mexico, USA and they will be aiming to be the closest team to 30,000ft.  The rocket has a sophisticated on board control system that deploys air brakes to actively control the apogee alttiude.  At NLD , they'll be using an N5800 to further refine the system before the competition  in June.  

Flight Specs

• Length: 2.9m

• Diameter: 145mm

• Weight: 27kg

• Motor: N5800 - Bright white flame,  dense grey smoke

• Altitude: 30,000ft

• Flier: University of Canterbury 

Craig Packard's Frenzy Massive is another well travelled rocket, having flown in both Australia and New Zealand.  It has flown multiple times at NZRA National Launch days, and this year will be making  another epic launch on an Aerotech  M1075 Dark Matter - well known in rocketry circles for it's effects  .  

Flight Specs

• Length: 3.1m

• Diameter: 140mm

• Weight: 23kg

• Motor: M1075  "Dark Matter" - Yellow flame, black smoke with gold sparks.  

• Altitude: 5,000ft

• Flier: Craig Packard