Defiance is a hybrid-propellant rocket that UTAT has been developing since 2017, with a target altitude of 30,000 ft. Defiance uses parachute recovery and has several telemetry modules which relay GPS coordinates from the nose cone and avionics bay of the rocket to the ground station operators. The entire project and the necessary infrastructure to operate it (such as cold flow and hot fire engine test stands) have been developed, built, and tested by UTAT Rocketry.

Originally, Defiance was designed for an altitude of 60,000 ft, aiming to break the Canadian amateur rocketry altitude record with a hybrid. We later decided through various testing results that the aspect ratio of such a slender rocket would not be structurally viable, and we decided to reduce the rocket's length and consequently the altitude target.

In the end, we broke a different kind of record, achieving the first experimental hybrid rocket flown in Canada.

This is an incredible achievement for the University of Toronto. It took a monumental effort from everyone involved and the invaluable effort of the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies, UTIAS, who provided us with the facilities and space needed to test and build Defiance. It was truly a project that redefined limits!