First tests with Howard University, and an interesting confirmation of a Planetary boundary layer

On 5-15-25 we had our maiden test at Howard university, Beltsville campus. The purpose was to prove our autonomous return capabilities, break ground in a new testing location, & spend some time with the staff at Howard U. It was overall a big success!

Our vehicle hit a maximum altitude of 29869 meters with an average ascent rate of 5.29 m/s. we hit apogee at pretty much exactly 3:00pm ET & returned home in about 7 minutes while still in the stratosphere.

Fun fact, earlier this day we had observed a planetary boundary layer (PBL) at around 2,000 meters. We experienced this again aerodynamically on the way down. Right around 2,100 MSL we experienced a reduction in vertical speed, with our vertical speed flipping positive, or us gaining altitude at times. This Skew-T plot of the data from Howard Us launch confirms this.

Vehicle descent, showing clear turbulence during the PBL.

We thank Howard University for the collaboration & look forward to future works together.