TIAT
"This Is A Test" or TIAT for short, is the Yellow Jacket Space Program's avionics, controls, and reco testbed launch program designed to use COTS solid motors. Each flight will verify and validate YJSP's flight avionics and software systems, and recovery systems at a much faster and cheaper rate than liquid flights would allow.
TIAT II
Following the recovery system failures on both Vespula and Felicette in Spring 2026, YJSP will return to making TIAT vehicles in order to test and validate our recovery and avionics systems for future liquid rockets. TIAT II is currently being designed, and we hope to update this page with more details soon!
TIAT I
TIAT is the name of the first vehicle in the TIAT family. TIAT launched out of Spaceport Camden on March 30, 2019 making it the first rocket YJSP ever launched. TIAT is built in three sections: a Controls section, a Recovery section, and a Booster section. TIAT had the goal of flying multiple times, with each flight increasing in difficulty and involving control in subsonic and supersonic flight conditions, with roll, pitch, and yaw control through canards. However, after TIAT’s first flight, the team decided to focus more on liquid rocket development, and further TIAT flights were postponed.
Controls
The Control section houses the Canard Can, a densely packaged actuator-linkage assembly with servos to control the canards themselves. It also houses all test-critical avionics, including the TIAT Flight Computer, flight software, flight sensors, external interfaces, cabling, and much more!
Recovery
The Recovery section houses twice redundant dual deploy altimeters of the drogue and main parachutes, each equipped with over 25 feet of shock cord, in addition to GPS tracking and camera feeds of launch and pyro separations.
Booster
The Booster is designed to be a modular NAR L2 section that propels our control payload to flight test conditions. It's designed to accept several different commercial motors with no rework required to fly again.