For Universities
Flight opportunities for PIs, labs, and student programs — research-budget sized, with a payload interface a team can design to in a semester.
Why this matters for your program
Getting an experiment to space has historically meant a queue behind a national program or a ride that arrives once every few years. MKII Aerospace is being built to change the math for university research: a recoverable, reusable suborbital system that a lab can plan around, with the mission engineering to get a student- or PI-built payload through reviews and onto a flight. GT-01 has not yet flown — everything here is stated as design intent and firms up as flight testing progresses.
What we're building for you
Sized for research budgets
The Goddard system is designed around recovery and reuse to bring the cost of a flight into range for a grant line or a department, not just a national program.
An interface you can design to
A documented, standardized payload interface means a lab or capstone team can start mechanical and electrical design early, against a fixed target.
A real project, start to finish
Requirements, reviews, integration, flight, recovery, data. Students get the full lifecycle, and the program gets a flight result.
Proposal-ready
MKII can be written into a grant or SBIR as the flight provider or engineering support, with a flight test plan that stands up to review.
Discuss a research flight
Tell us about your experiment, your target altitude, and your academic timeline.
Start a MissionUniversity FAQ
Can universities fly payloads with MKII Aerospace?
That is the intent. MKII Aerospace is building the Goddard Sounding Rocket System and its launch services to be accessible to university PIs, labs, and student teams — sized for research budgets, with a payload interface a group can design to within an academic term.
Is a suborbital flight useful for student research?
A suborbital flight gives students an end-to-end project with a real deadline and a real environment: define requirements, build to an interface, pass reviews, fly, recover, and analyze data. It is the kind of experience that turns coursework into demonstrated capability.
Can MKII be a subcontractor on a research grant or SBIR?
Yes. MKII Aerospace can be scoped into a proposal as the flight provider or as mission-engineering support, so the flight test plan is credible when reviewers read it.