The Mini Meggs, a six-inch, two-stage sub-orbital rocket, powered by ethanol and nitrous oxide bipropellant engine, was launched earlier this week during an extended launch window on 6 July at White Cliffs in NSW.
Payloads deployed cleanly, descended under parachute, and were recovered the same evening, with payload health confirmed remotely with each customer from back at camp – according to the company. The payloads and flight data are now being returned to customers.
“We've been building and flying rockets for years. The question was whether our liquid engine could push a rocket into the sky, and now we know it can," said Brad Younger, Founder of Sunburnt Space.
“This flight proved the whole system, from taking a customer's payload in the door to handing back their data. Next flight, we push higher.”
The flight reached 17,000 feet against a 20 km target after a fill process issue meant the vehicle flew on a partial propellant tank. The company elected to fly, prioritising proof of the end-to-end system, and confirmed the fix ahead of its next mission. Even at reduced altitude, onboard avionics recorded almost 7 seconds of high-quality microgravity, below 30 milli-g, with a peak acceleration of just 2.6 g, the gentle flight environment sensitive payloads require.
Sunburnt Space's next mission is targeting late 2026, most likely a two-stage configuration aiming for 25 km, with altitude expansion continuing across the manifest.
“Yesterday we flew. First commercial mission for Sunburnt Space. Engine lit, flight was stable, customer payloads deployed, recovered and back with their owners,” a public statement from Sunburnt Space Co said.
“Launch. Learn. Launch Again.”
Payload customers included Metakosmos with space suit sensors and Orbit2Orbit with an initial testing payload unit.
“Parallax 0 marks an important milestone for Orbit2Orbit and the Lab2Space program,” Orbit2Orbit founder and chief executive Bradley Hatton-Jones said.
“Flown with Sunburnt Space, Parallax 0 is the first Orbit2Orbit Payload Housing Unit to take flight. The unit carried internal instrumentation designed to help us understand how the hardware behaves during flight, how safely it performs, and what conditions a future client payload may experience inside the system.
“This data is critical to the development of Lab2Space. Our goal is to provide safe, reliable, flight-ready hardware that customers can build within and trust when their payloads need to perform.”
Metakosmos shared details of their payload and achievements in a public-released statement following the flight on 8 July.
“Every space technology has a first flight. This was one of ours. We’re proud to share that our CubeSat ‘HELIOS – Suit in a Box’ payload successfully flew aboard Australia’s first commercial liquid-fuel rocket, launched by Sunburnt Space Co,” the company said.
“For us, this wasn’t about reaching space. It was about proving that our hardware could perform in a real flight environment.
“Long before launch day, our team worked through months of design reviews, quality assurance and mission readiness checks to ensure every subsystem was prepared.
“Our flight test included payload integration, pre-flight verification, mechanical integrity checks, power and communications validation, telemetry monitoring, environmental readiness and post-flight data analysis (currently underway).
“Sub-orbital flight testing bridges the gap between laboratory simulations and operational reality.
“Rapid acceleration, vibration, changing environmental conditions and flight dynamics provide insights that simply can’t be replicated on the ground. Every mission helps us validate assumptions, identify improvements and increase confidence in our technology.
“A huge thank you to Sunburnt Space Co, the launch team, our collaborators and everyone who contributed behind the scenes to make this mission possible. This wasn’t the finish line.
“It was another important step in our journey to build technologies that make human spaceflight safer, smarter and more accessible. One flight. Thousands of data points. The next generation of human spaceflight starts with milestones like these.”
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