New African Record for Phoenix Hybrid Rocket

In 2021, our students launched the Phoenix hybrid rocket to a new African altitude record of 18km, nearly doubling the previous amateur rocket record. Only two other universities globally have reached higher altitudes with hybrid rockets.

A few months later, the same rocket scientists successfully tested our home-grown Ablative Blow-Down Liquid Engine (ABLE) rocket engine at Overberg Test Range in the Western Cape. ABLE became the second most powerful liquid rocket engine ever built by a university team, surpassing European and American records in the process.

The Ablative Blow-down Liquid Engine (ABLE) was designed by mechanical engineering students in the master’s and doctoral programmes at UKZN.