UKRA Rocketry Record Criteria

For a record to be valid, the following flight criteria must be adhered to:

  • The rocket must be built by team of UK residents (1).
  • The rocket does not necessarily have to be flown in the UK if it's predicted altitude would make such a flight impractical.
  • The team must be non-professional in nature.
  • No substantial part of the rocket vehicle, for example the propulsion system, may be obtained from a military or governmental source. Governmental or military facilities and ground support / tracking equipment can however be used.
  • The propulsion system can be amateur made or commercial subject to the relevant safety code and local laws and legal requirements for the country in question (2). (For example, the 1875 Explosives Act, if the flight is made in the UK)
  • The individuals / team cannot be carrying out the launch for a commercial gain other than in the event of a prize being offered for a competition.
  • If the proposed altitude record attempt is predicted to reach an altitude of 50,000ft Above Sea Level (ASL) or less, then a commercially made barometric altimeter (3,4,5,6) which includes full flight logging must be used for altitude determination. Any other forms of altitude determination such as ground based optical or radar systems should be discussed with the UKRA Safety & Technical Committee prior to the launch.
  • If UKRA members do not witness both the launch and recovery, the following additional constraints apply:
    • A written report must be submitted to the UKRA Enquiries email account
    • The report must include dimensions, weights, propulsion details, simulation data
    • The report must include photographic and videographic evidence of the flight and full videographic evidence of recovery, showing the rocket substationally intact and the altitude verification process within one continuous video.
    • The report must be verified by a suitably qualified third party such as a safety officer or board member from a recognised national rocketry organisation.
    • The altimeter flight log/data downloaded from the flight logging altimeter must also be included.
  • All relevant safety code and local laws and legal requirements, for the country in question, must be adhered to :- UK = UKRA, USA = Tripoli / NAR / NERO
  • All parts of the rocket must be recovered, substantially intact and reusable.
  • The flight must be successful, including but not limited to:
    • The flight must be successful in all stages in flight, including safe ignition, flight, deployment and recovery at all intended points in the flight.
    • All parts of the rocket must be recovered substantially intact, with no damage that would prevent a further flight.
    • The flight log(s) taken from the avionics must corroborate the flight profile, simulations and expected altitude.
    • The flight must be undertaken with impartial observers able to corroborate the success of the flight.

NOTE 1: Flying only a payload on a rocket which has not been built by the record applicant or group, or on a pre-built third party rocket, is unacceptable.

NOTE 2: Commercially available rocket motors or amateur rocket motors may be used for propulsion, as long as the propulsion system meets the legal and health and safety requirements of the point/location of manufacture and point/location of launch. Specifically no amateur-made rocket motors may be launched in the UK due to contravention of the 2014 Explosives Regulations.  UKRA will not verify any flight in which an amateur motor is used which contravenes the 1875 Explosives Act or 2014 Explosives Regulations.

NOTE 3: Altitude logging may be by commercial altimeter/accelerometers, GPS, or radar tracking log.  Other systems should be discussed with UKRA prior to the record attempt.

NOTE 4: Dead reckoning of altitudes, using simulation data, observing the rocket flight or estimating final altitude are unacceptable methods of altitude logging for altitude claims.

NOTE 5: Commercial altimeter/accelerometers used by UK rocketeers for altitude logging are listed below, however it is important to note that UKRA record attempts must now include a full flight log, so care should be taken to utilise a commercially manufactured altimeter with flight logging capability.

  • AED R-DAS, R-DAS Compact, R-DAS Tiny
  • Perfectflite MiniAlt W/D
  • Alt 15K
  • PicoAlt
  • Black Sky Research ALTACC
  • Cambridge Instruments IAX-96
  • G-Wiz LC, MC and LC Deluxe
  • Transolve P2
  • AED R-DAS Compact & Tiny
  • Perfectflite Stratologger
  • APRA
  • Firefly & Pnut
  • Altus Metrum Micropeak, EasyMini, Telemetrum & Telemega.

NOTE 6: Non-commercial altimeters/accelerometers, products under commercial development or similar avionics equipment are acceptable, but only where full documentation on the equipment, along with detailed calibration data, and flight test data, are submitted, and where the non-commercial equipment has been flown alongside a recognised calibrated commercial unit (such as one of those mentioned above) for a minimum of 10 logged flights, and has demonstrated deviation of 5% or less from the altitude recorded from the calibrated commercial unit.

NOTE 7: This rule covers multi-stage model rockets where tumble recovery may be used for booster stages, and also larger rockets in the open category, where multiple sections of a rocket may be descending under separate recovery systems.