Madhav Sonkusare

Project VAYUVEGA

The seventh rocket in thrustMIT's lineage, and the flagship of my tenure as mechanical & propulsion lead. Flew to 29,432 ft on an AeroTech O5500X motor, recovered cleanly, took 4th place in category at IREC 2025.

RoleDeputy Project Manager · Mechanical & Propulsion Lead

  • 2nd Prize Worldwide in SDL Payload Design Challenge
  • 4/21 in 30K COTS category
  • 22/159 in Overall Standings
  • Highest Barrowman Score in 30K COTS category
  • 18/159 Overall in James Barrowman Award
  • Top Team from India in Overall Standings

Inside VAYUVEGA

Nose cone

A tangent ogive, 5.6 times as long as it is wide: the ratio with the lowest drag in simulation. Carbon fibre laid up by hand in two moulds, with a machined aluminium tip.

Profile
Tangent ogive · 5.6 : 1
Shell
CFRP · hand lay-up
Tip
Al 6061-T6

Main parachute

A 72-inch parachute packed above the avionics. It stays shut until 1,500 ft above the ground, and is sized to slow the rocket to 8.9 m/s for landing.

Canopy
72 in Iris
Opens
1,500 ft AGL
Descent
8.93 m/s

Avionics

Two independent sets of electronics sit on one mount between the recovery bulkheads: a flight computer designed by the team and a bought-in altimeter. Each fires its own charge at both parachute events.

Coupler
GFRP · 390 mm
Redundancy
SRAD + COTS
Bulkheads
Al 6061-T6

Drogue parachute

A small 30-inch parachute, fired out at the top of the flight by five grams of black powder. It is sized for a 27.9 m/s fall until the main opens.

Canopy
30 in elliptical
Opens
Apogee
Descent
27.89 m/s

Coupler and thrust plate

The joint that failed on the previous rocket, redesigned. It is machined from one piece of aluminium with the thrust plate built in, and carries the motor’s full push into the airframe.

Material
Al 6061-T6
Thrust path
3/8 in eyebolt + 12 × M5
Safety factor
9.45

Motor

An AeroTech O5500X: seven propellant grains in a wound-fibreglass case. It burns for four seconds and delivers 21,384 newton-seconds.

Total impulse
21,384 N·s
Burn
4.0 s
Peak thrust
7,552 N
  1. Nose cone. A tangent ogive, 5.6 times as long as it is wide: the ratio with the lowest drag in simulation. Carbon fibre laid up by hand in two moulds, with a machined aluminium tip.
  2. Payload. Vrishabha is a 4.55 kg experiment in a cansat: a steel cube on a spring, a camera on a servo that follows it, and a Raspberry Pi 5 working out the cube’s pose in real time while the rocket pulls up to 22 g.
  3. Main parachute. A 72-inch parachute packed above the avionics. It stays shut until 1,500 ft above the ground, and is sized to slow the rocket to 8.9 m/s for landing.
  4. Avionics. Two independent sets of electronics sit on one mount between the recovery bulkheads: a flight computer designed by the team and a bought-in altimeter. Each fires its own charge at both parachute events.
  5. Drogue parachute. A small 30-inch parachute, fired out at the top of the flight by five grams of black powder. It is sized for a 27.9 m/s fall until the main opens.
  6. Coupler and thrust plate. The joint that failed on the previous rocket, redesigned. It is machined from one piece of aluminium with the thrust plate built in, and carries the motor’s full push into the airframe.
  7. Motor. An AeroTech O5500X: seven propellant grains in a wound-fibreglass case. It burns for four seconds and delivers 21,384 newton-seconds.
  8. Fins and boattail. Four fins, each milled with its mounting rail from a single block. The tapered tail behind them cuts the drag of the blunt base.
VAYUVEGA with its outer skins removed, nose to the right

  1. Nose cone

    A tangent ogive, 5.6 times as long as it is wide: the ratio with the lowest drag in simulation. Carbon fibre laid up by hand in two moulds, with a machined aluminium tip.

  2. Payload

    Vrishabha is a 4.55 kg experiment in a cansat: a steel cube on a spring, a camera on a servo that follows it, and a Raspberry Pi 5 working out the cube’s pose in real time while the rocket pulls up to 22 g.

    PaperVrishabha: Edge-AI Enabled Real-Time Visual Perception System for Extreme Rocket Flight Environments

  3. Main parachute

    A 72-inch parachute packed above the avionics. It stays shut until 1,500 ft above the ground, and is sized to slow the rocket to 8.9 m/s for landing.

  4. Avionics

    Two independent sets of electronics sit on one mount between the recovery bulkheads: a flight computer designed by the team and a bought-in altimeter. Each fires its own charge at both parachute events.

  5. Drogue parachute

    A small 30-inch parachute, fired out at the top of the flight by five grams of black powder. It is sized for a 27.9 m/s fall until the main opens.

  6. Coupler and thrust plate

    The joint that failed on the previous rocket, redesigned. It is machined from one piece of aluminium with the thrust plate built in, and carries the motor’s full push into the airframe.

  7. Motor

    An AeroTech O5500X: seven propellant grains in a wound-fibreglass case. It burns for four seconds and delivers 21,384 newton-seconds.

  8. Fins and boattail

    Four fins, each milled with its mounting rail from a single block. The tapered tail behind them cuts the drag of the blunt base.

    PaperSubsystem-level aerodynamic optimization with max-Q-based system integration and flight testing of an experimental sounding rocket

Launch

Lift-off at IREC 2025, Midland, Texas · from the ESRA broadcast.

Gallery

We realised our carbon-fibre body tube was bent in the middle and had to redo it between exams. :[

Links

Next

Presently @

Thrustworks Dynetics

RoleJunior Engineer @ Technology Team

since Jan 2026