D2-EB Project Purpose
Deneb 2 Electric Boogaloo (D2-EB) is the successor to the Deneb flight vehicle that was flown in April 2023. Since Deneb flew but did not have a successful recovery, the D2-EB flight vehicle is meant to be a sister rocket and fly to the full potential of Deneb and also successfully recover. This is in order to achieve the second block of the Mountain Spirit program.
Vehicle Make Up
The D2-EB flight vehicle is a kero-lox pressure fed rocket. The engine propelling the rocket, Janus 4.2, is an ox centered pintle injector that runs at a 2.4 oxidizer to fuel ratio and produces 1,750 lbf at sea level. The vehicle utilizes structural propellant tanks with a carbon fiber body tube, fin can, and tail cone. The nose cone is made up of fiberglass and houses the avionics bay, which is part of the dual separation, dual deployment recovery system.
Timeline
The flight vehicle project began in May of 2023. The vehicle was built and on the stand in February of 2024. The vehicle began its test campaign in September of 2024 and concluded in March 2025. D2-EB static fired 11 times throughout its lifetime. The vehicle endured 2 detonation events, one totaling the engine.
LAUNCH
The vehicle was launched on March 16, 2025. The vehicle did not reach its expected altitude of 100,000 feet due to an anomaly on the rail causing a slow of-the-rod velocity. The slow velocity caused the vehicle to pitch heavily downrange causing it only to reach 21,000 feet and deploy the parachutes at a 380-mph horizontal velocity. Due to the robustification of the recovery system, the vehicle was recovered in one piece, this is the first large scale flight vehicle recovered in the RDL.
Next Steps
As the vehicle did not perform as expected, steps are being taken to perform a root cause analysis investigation on what happened upon launch. These findings, combined with the knowledge gained from the D2-EB development process, will influence the next flight vehicle to ensure it can perform to its fullest potential.