Black Flag Discovery

Aerospace research and flight hardware development.

We are building hardware for missions that do not exist yet.
Black Flag Discovery is an independent aerospace and propulsion research effort focused on developing unconventional engines, long duration systems, and complete mission architectures beyond Earth orbit.
This is not analysis on paper. This is metal, fire, and flight hardware.
Our first mission is Heretic 1.
Heretic 1 is a privately developed Mars technology demonstrator designed to prove deep space propulsion, autonomous systems, and return capability at an amateur but serious engineering scale.
The vehicle architecture includes multiple stages, vacuum optimized propulsion, on orbit operations, and Mars surface interaction with return of physical material.
At the core of this work is pressure gain propulsion.
We are actively developing pressure gain detonation engines, including pulse detonation and rotating detonation configurations, to explore propulsion regimes that exceed the efficiency limits of conventional deflagration based rocket engines.
These engines are being designed for controllability, scalability, and integration into real flight vehicles rather than laboratory curiosities.
Alongside this effort, a 250 kN pressure fed cluster of engines known as Belka is in development.
This cluster is intended as a practical high thrust system using simple, robust feed architecture while supporting long burn durations and deep throttling capability.
It is a foundational step toward larger launch and transfer vehicles.
The long term objective is Mars.
This is not a flags and footprints exercise, but a disciplined progression toward sustained interplanetary capability carrying earth life to mars, returning Martian regolith to earth, and insertine the largest optical glass ever put into an orbit around Mars.
All of this will be accomplished for about two orders of magnitude less cost than any legacy program.
Heretic 1 rocket with Belka engines is the opening move.
The mission exists to validate propulsion, structures, guidance, autonomous operations, and systems integration under real constraints.
This site is under construction.
Hardware is not...yet.
More soon.