Elliptical technically started back in April 2020, with the launch of our first rocket, Montana 6. While it was more so just a guy with a rocket back then, we trace our roots back to that.

-The Pre-Company Era-

While Elliptical Spaceflight wasn't a thing when Montana 6 flew, it formed in the two years between flights. You may be wondering, "Wow, two years between flights?! What were you doing?" Well, the answer is: mostly nothing. I ordered another rocket kit almost immediately after Montana 6 flew for the final time. And while I enjoyed building and flying Montana 6, I lost the motivation to do another one. So, it sat in my closet, until a year later when I finally decided to start building it. Construction took a couple days, and when it was done, I had a beautiful rocket. So what did I do with it? Exactly what you'd expect me to do with it of course, put it back in my closet for a year.

So it sat, for a year, collecting dust. Then on October 29th, 2022, I visited Kennedy Space Center and found renewed motivation. That same day, I launched it. Its name was: Hue 0.1... wait no it was Ellipticallity 0.1, I changed it midway through its lifespan.

-The Spaceshot Plan Era-

Ellipticallity 0.1 was a smashing success. It never suffered any sort of launch failure, and it set an Elliptical record for most flights of a single vehicle. It could fly with or without a payload bay. When it was flown with a payload bay, it was usually flown with something random, but sometimes nothing at all. One flight did use it for something useful. I flew a 2nd motor inside the payload bay to test how much it would decrease the altitude in preparation for a two-stage vehicle. This vehicle is, as of 2024, Elliptical's most successful vehicle. On December 30th, 2022, it flew its final flight. It flew higher and faster than ever before, and unfortunately due to that height, the upper-level winds carried it too far away, and into a tree. It was unrecoverable.

Ellipticallity 0.2 served as a major learning experience for Elliptical. It was our first 3D printed vehicle, and was made to teach us how to design in CAD, as well as actually 3D print hardware. Much was learned, but the flight ended just a few moments after it began. Following liftoff, the vehicle started spinning uncontrollably while still under power from its Estes C6-5 motor. After burnout, the vehicle continued tumbling and immediately started it's descent. No parachute was deployed and impacted the ground hard. The ejection charge fired while the vehicle was laying horizontally on the ground. This flight took place after a mere two days after SpaceX launched the full Starship vehicle for the first time, and it also tumbled. (There's nothing to note here, I just find it funny.) 

Many design oversights were made here. This was designed, printed, tested, and launched within the span of four months. We felt inspired by Relativity Space's work on Terran 1, as 3DP1 took place around that same timeframe. It was designed to be modular, with different parts being able to be swapped out or replaced entirely. This never came to fruition, as the vehicle only flew once. This modularity ultimately caused it's downfall. The weight was shifted too far to one side by the motor retention system as well as the launch lug. This caused it to spin out of control. However, the largest problem by far was the nose cone. The nose cone was wobbly, as it was not tight or secured properly. This almost certainly caused the vehicle to tumble and become unstable. Following its flight, it was converted to an engine test stand, and was used for a single test fire, before becoming entirely retired.

Ellipticallity 0.3 was designed to become our flagship launch vehicle. It was meant to support countless flights with fast cadence, and test hardware for future vehicles. Unfortunately, on its very first flight, the vehicle suffered a recovery failure. The liftoff and ascent were perfect. It successfully reached apogee with no anomalies or issues, and successfully deployed its parachute. Unfortunately, once again upper-level winds took charge and blew the vehicle beyond the recovery area and into a forest. It was unable to be recovered. This was a major setback, as we had major plans for this vehicle. However, ultimately this LOV was beneficial, as it allowed us to rethink our plan for the future. We decided to abandon the Ellipticallity lineup of vehicles.

-The Post-Failed Spaceshot Plan Era-

The Physzy vehicle was designed for one purpose: to be used in for educational purposes. During my Junior year of high school, I reached out to my physics teacher to see if a rocket would help in any way, and she said she was open to the idea, but would need permission. I set out to build Physzy so that it could be used if permission was given. It's first launch attempt was on September 1st, 2023, but a scrub occurred that day. It was also that day I was informed that the vehicle could not be used. But I decided to fly it anyway and attempted to fly it the next day, September 2nd, 2023. The flight went completely nominally, and was absolutely perfect. Following its flight, it was retired and donated to my physics teacher to be displayed in the classroom, where it remains to this day.

Pipsqueak, along with Gamma, was built solely to reinvigorate our sense of rocketry. Following the end of the Ellipticallity line, we were left wondering where to go next. While Physzy helped, it was a shame to not be able to fly it with it's intended purpose. So Pipsqueak and Gamma were built, just to be fun rockets. Pipsqueak launched on November 17th, 2023, and it's flight was mostly a success. It lifted off and completed ascent nominally, but due to its very small size we lost track of it. During production, the nosecone, as well as the motor, were accidentally super glued to the body. Due to this error, we believe that the vehicle may have experience a RUD. No pieces of the vehicle were found. However, due to those manufacturing errors, the likelyhood of it ever flying again had it been recovered were immensely slim.

As mentioned before, Gamma, along with Pipsqueak, was built to reinvigorate our sense of rocketry. Gamma was meant to be our next flagship vehicle, and it served that purpose for four different flights. Its maiden flight occurred on the same day as Pipsqueak. It successfully flew three flights, however on the final flight an anomaly occurred. On it's third flight, we noticed that the parachute did not deploy properly and was stuck inside the body of the vehicle. While the mission was successful and the vehicle was fully recovered, we noticed that on descent it seemed to do a Starship style bellyflop on its way down due to how its fins were made. It would go belly first then flip up vertical, then back to belly first. 

We wanted to try to see how replicable this was, so we planned three different flights on May 1st, 2024 to demonstrate this. The first of these flights was supposed to show what would happen should the parachute successfully deploy. (The parachute definitely deployed, more on that later...) The second flight would show what would happen on descent should the parachute stay lodged inside the body of the rocket. And finally, the third flight would show what would happen should there be no parachute at all on descent. Unfortunately, and anomaly occurred with the first flight of the day that led to the parachute and nosecone detaching completely from the shock cord. The vehicle did demonstrate a bellyflop-like descent without the parachute, and impacted the ground completely intact, minus the parachute and nosecone. The vehicle is still alive and is currently on display. The nosecone and parachute were unrecoverable, as they were very high up and weighed very little, so the wind carried them a long way away. In the future, Elliptical may build a Gamma MK2 to successfully demonstrate what we planned to do.

-Reinventing Elliptical-

GFN was our attempt at reinventing Elliptical. It was our largest vehicle yet, and early in development it was planned on becoming our flagship vehicle. The development of GFN did not go well, it was a very choppy experience. The original fins that were planned on being on the vehicle had to be abandoned as the process for creating them was very complex and if they were not made perfectly, it could've caused a launch failure, so we had to switch to using fins from another rocket that had been cancelled years prior. Along with that, the shock cord installation had to be aborted last second many times due to it not attaching in the correct position or leaving super glue everywhere. During testing, the payload bay was melted. This occurred when we were pressure testing it and decided to use steam. Steam is hot, however, and started to melt the payload bay. This payload bay was instrumental to the vehicle, as the nosecone and vehicle adapter required it. In the end, we had to come up with a solution. GFN was almost cancelled, but we decided to instead use a very sketchy setup and a ton of blue tape to get the job done. At this point, GFN was planned to only fly once. While it would include recovery hardware and we would attempt to recover it, recovery was not mission success criteria. 

That brings us to launch day. It was October 19th, 2024. A cloudy day, with a light breeze. As we were setting up, it started to lightly rain. We had to make a choice: scrub for the day or send it right then and there. We decided to send it, even though with the clouds it put our chances of recovery at next to zero. Frankly, we just wanted to get GFN out of our hands and move on. That's what we did. At 2:14 PM EST, we launched GFN. It had a successful ascent, but sight of it was completely lost after motor burnout. We have no idea where it landed or if the parachute was even successfully deployed. It was gone. But as recovery was not a part of the mission success criteria, the mission was deemed to be a success. 

Gamma MK2 intended to futher the research that was planned to be done with Gamma MK1. It's first flight was a test flight that aimed to validate the aerodynamics of the vehicle and prove it can ascend nominally. The leadup to the first flight of Gamma MK2 was rather tumultulous. It initally started off as Primum, using the Estes Tigress model. However, during assembly, one of the fins was attached incorrectly, making the entire fin can useless. So, in order to still get some use out of it, I removed the fin can from what was left of Gamma MK1, and attached it to Primum's tube. This created Gamma MK2. In order to validate that everything was done right, a hotfire was done. Unfortunately, the motor being hotfired experienced a major CATO and significantly damaged the vehicle. It almost didn't fly, but we decided to push on and fly it anyway. Gamma MK2 lifted off the pad successfully on January 7th, 2025, and completed a nominal ascent. Following that, it deployed it's parachute successfully. However, it then drifted into an area where it could nto be recovered. Initially, we planned to go back the day after to attempt to retrieve it, but this plan was later scrapped. It was abandoned in favor of the superior Gamma MK3.

-The Future of Elliptical-