The Honeywell division of our rocketry team is responsible for fulfilling the obligations of our club’s Honeywell FM&T RASR contract. The Honeywell team consists of the most experienced and proven members of the club, who help to build the largest vehicles in the club’s arsenal. Currently our team fields three vehicles; the sister rockets Shake and Bake, which were first flown in 2021 and have 12 successful flights between them, as well as the cluster rocket Sequoia, which had its maiden flight in March of 2024.
Shake and Bake launch composite, July 2024
The Honeywell team manufactures all vehicle metal components on campus in Boyd Lab. Manufacturing all rocket components in-house allows our members to acquire valuable manufacturing experience which they can proudly take into industry.
Sequoia’s maiden flight, March 2024
The Honeywell team typically launches with Kloudbusters in Argonia Kansas two to three times a year, depending on contract requirements. These launches provide great learning opportunities to our members, allowing them to experience full vehicle assembly, vendor payload integration, and the thrill of the launch!
In 2025 the Honeywell team plans to launch an upgraded payload vehicle named Nimbus, which will replace the aging Shake rocket. Nimbus includes a variety of upgrades to improve vehicle flight performance. The first of these is a hot-swappable motor retention system, allowing the vehicle to fly on solid and hybrid rocket motors of a variety of diameters, depending on vendor acceleration desires. The vehicle also includes a fast swap avionics sled solution, allowing the team to get the rocket in the air significantly faster on launch day, with potential for fast turn around after flights, and potentially even two flights of Nimbus per day.