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Koeia

Koeia rocket render

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Apogee

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Weight

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/ OverviewMission Profile

Inside Koeia

Koeia is DRACO's most advanced vehicle yet, and the team's first to integrate an active-drag (airbrakes) system designed to fine-tune apogee in flight. Flown at the 2026 NASA Student Launch in Huntsville, Alabama on an AeroTech L2200G, it completed a successful flight with two clean separation events and was recovered safely and reusably. Finished in DRACO's signature violet, it also carried Monty Mole — an autonomous soil-collection and analysis rover.

/ Mission Sequence

Concept of Operations

Concept of Operations — ascent, drogue and main deployment, and Monty Mole post-landing sequence.

Concept of Operations diagram for Koeia

Koeia

Vehicle Overview

Internal components of Koeia
01 Nose Cone (Von Kármán)
02 Payload Bay
03 Main Parachute
04 Avionics Bay
05 Drogue Parachute
06 Airbrakes
07 Fins (Clipped Delta)
08 Motor Mount + Boat Tail

Select a marker to explore each subsystem inside Koeia.

Apogee
4,020 ft
Weight
58.7 lb
Length
10.25 ft
Diameter
6 in
Motor
AeroTech L2200G
Airframe
Composite

/ Engineering Highlights

Key subsystems

CAD assembly of Koeia's airbrakes module, showing the four deployable drag fins, actuation linkage, control board, and top eyebolt.
Subsystem 01

Active-Drag Airbrakes

Koeia carries DRACO's first airbrakes system — four deployable drag fins driven by an onboard control loop that fine-tunes the rocket's apogee in flight.

  • Four deployable drag fins
  • Closed-loop apogee control
  • Integrated into the AFT airframe
CAD assembly of the Monty Mole rover payload for Koeia.
Subsystem 02

Monty Mole Payload

An autonomous soil-collection rover — power distribution, embedded electronics, conductivity sensing, autonomous mobility, and a wireless control interface all packaged into the payload bay.

  • Soil conductivity sensing (~2% measurement accuracy in testing)
  • Autonomous wheel actuation with onboard IMU
  • Centralized battery + voltage-stepping power architecture
CAD section view of Koeia's preliminary full-scale assembly, showing the avionics bay electronics board and surrounding bulkheads and tubes along the airframe.
Subsystem 03

Avionics Bay (Recovery)

Houses the redundant Missile Works RRC3+ (official scoring) and Blue Raven backup altimeters with GPS tracking. Drives the dual-deployment ejection sequence and logs full flight telemetry.

  • Redundant RRC3+ and Blue Raven altimeters
  • CO₂ ejection charges + GPS tracking
  • FEA-validated bulkheads
/ GalleryMission Photos

Koeia in Alabama

Launch footage, manufacturing, integration, and the team behind the mission.

Launch footage

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