Project Vittorio Emanuele II
Name and design
Vittorio Emanuele II, code name VES, is the second rocketry project undertaken by the team.
The project is named after the first King of Italy, born in Turin in 1820. Vittorio Emanuele II, although already King of Sardinia and Piedmont, fought tirelessly for a united Italy.
His unwavering determination to never settle for mere accomplishments and always strive for greater heights serves as an inspiration for the second rocket of the Founding Fathers series.
The PoliTo Rocket Team is propelled by this spirit, refusing to rest on the laurels of the remarkable achievements of the Cavour Project. Instead, it developed another rocket specifically designed for international competitions with increasingly challenging objectives.
Technical characteristics
VES is a single-stage rocket featuring a solid Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) motor and an internal diameter of 130 mm (5.11 in). A key technical objective of the project is to enable the team to gain hands-on experience in developing Student Researched and Developed (SRAD) onboard systems. These include the ejection recovery system, flight computer, ground station, and, in particular, an airbrakes system.
The ultimate goal will be a launch targeting an apogee of 9km, sustaining supersonic speeds.
European Rocketry Challenge
October 12, 2024VES was launched on October 12 at 14:19 (UTC+1) at Santa Margarida Military Camp, Portugal. The flight was nominal, reaching an apogee of approximately 3160m with a maximum speed of 259m/s and a maximum acceleration of 8.5G.
The drogue parachute deployed, reducing the rocket’s descent velocity to about 30m/s. The main parachute separation was successful; the parachute did not have enough time to fully inflate due to a failure in the drogue system’s shock cord. As a result, the rocket split into two sections for recovery, each equipped with a parachute. VES returned home with some minor airframe damage but was ready for future launches.
Due to the shortage of commercial solid motors, VES was only able to participate in the competition in the solid-3km COTS category. The rocket secured 6th place out of 25 European teams participating and finished second in its flight category.
A month before the competition, the VES project underwent a test campaign at the ASK 't Harde range in the Netherlands. Conducted in collaboration with the Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering team, the campaign provided invaluable guidance and facilitated the resolution of critical design flaws.
