Wow! Take a look at this for a little “bang! zoom!” in your day! This video shows an incredible video of an amateur rocket launch, which could be eligible for a $5,000 rocketry prize. Led by Derek Deville, the rocketeers launched their custom-built 26 ft. (8 meter) Qu8k (pronounced “Quake”) rocket on September 30, 2011 from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. It reached an altitude of 121,000 feet (36,880 meter) in 92 seconds, at speeds of 2,185 mph (3,516 km/h). Holy speeding missiles, Batman! The Qu8k rocket returned to Earth safely just 8.5 minutes later, landing 3 miles (5 km) from its launch point.
The incredible footage from on on-board camera shows the curvature of Earth and the black sky of space. See the full video below.
Kristian Von Bengtson checks the cockpit before the launch dummy is loaded. Photo credit: Bo Tornvig, Copenhagen Suborbitals.
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Copenhagen Suborbitals hopes to launch the world’s first amateur-built rocket for human space travel and have announced an upcoming launch window for their Tycho Brahe capsule. The window extends from June 1-14, 2011 and they are currently shooting for Thursday, June 2 for an unmanned suborbital test flight, according the their website. The group is headed by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen, and their HEAT 1-X rocket is being prepared for launch from a steel catamaran in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark.
If all goes well with this test flight, Madsen hopes to be inside the capsule himself for a manned flight in the near future.
The company, which is funded by donations, is working towards launching tourists on suborbital flights in the single-seat capsule to altitudes above 100 kilometers (62.5 miles).
And talk about a wild ride : the Tycho Brahe capsule will provide a single passenger capsule with a full view through a polymer plexiglas-dome so that the person can see and experience the entire ballistic ride. It has a pressurized volume providing support for one upright standing/half-sitting person. It will also have additional pressurized space, around and behind the astronaut, available for several other systems necessary for the flight procedure, and to support additional scientific and commercial project.
The flight trajectory for the HEAT rocket. Credit: Copenhagen Suborbitals.
No specific launch time has been announced, so check their website for more updated information. There will also be live coverage and launch parties in Denmark.
Check these links for possible online coverage:
Live internet coverage: www.ing.dk/live
and http://maylaunch.dotsquare.dk/
