Asfaloth Sounding Rocket: Structural Development of Tank-Engine Interface and Fins

This study explored the structural engineering of the “Asfaloth” hybrid sounding rocket within the context of Taiwan's active participation in the New Space Economy. Taiwan Space Agency recently restructured and initiated rocket-related educational efforts to foster local space talents. Among these efforts, the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) carried out a research-level sounding rocket project called Asfaloth between 2022 to 2025, with two test flights planned between 2024 and 2025. Asfaloth represented a wholly new sounding rocket on the scale of 6m in height, 260kg in mass, and 1300kgf in thrust, requiring significant structural development. The study aimed to lay out (i) a review of structural designs for tank-to-engine and engine-to-fin interfaces on comparable hybrid sounding rockets, (ii) the adaptation of these designs for Asfaloth, and (iii) proposition of generalized designs for similar-scale hybrid sounding rockets. Key technical challenges that were addressed include the intricacy of integrating hybrid motors to the airframe and the installation of fins on composite engine casing. This proceeding discusses Asfaloth’s developmental work up to the concept definition phase, while engineering design, as well as test and evaluation remain for future work.