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While this may seem a bit far fetched, there is a precedent for a small but determined group of people who I think will eventually be able to get some vehicles above the Kármán line and perhaps even eventually into orbital spaceflight. While not mentioned in the article, these groups have been able to do some impressive things.

The groups I'd compare to this effort include:

• Armadillo Aerospace - a couple of Texans with big dreams and a comparatively small budget (compared to NASA)
• Copenhagen Suborbitals - a bunch of crazy Danes who can't keep still. BTW, check out their submarine they built earlier... gives a whole new meaning to a ballistic missile submarine.
• ARCA - The European continent holds more than a few nut groups. These are the Romanians who have really gone out on a limb to redefine what spaceflight even means.
• Unreasonable Rocket - Just when you've seen it all, along comes a group who does even more with less. And these guys are from California.

My point here is that a small group with limited finances can put stuff together if they care, provided that they make the effort, experiment a whole bunch, and keep working at the issues. The nice thing about all of the above groups is that they've been around for a few years, seem to be pretty stable, and have all flown vehicles of various kinds to prove they are legitimate. These are not groups with pretty power point presentations, but rather folks that have more than a couple smoking craters from experiments gone bad as well as some amazing success stories too. I expect every one of these groups to be above the Kármán line within this next decade, and quite possibly one or two of them could achieve orbit in the next 20-40 years if they stay persistent with their business plans.

I certainly see nothing special about these groups, and it is entirely possible that a group in Uganda could join their ranks in their quest to build a cheap but quality rocket. There are some amazing resources to draw upon as well as a whole bunch of experience. Besides, Uganda doesn't have to deal with ITAR restrictions, so there may even be an advantage for them over some of their competitors.

The submarine was the group's previous project, and seems to run just fine. They are using the submarine merely because it is handy and are trying to make use of all of their available resources, not because they particularly need a submarine.

The last launch attempt was aborted due to a hair blower that they purchased at a local department store that got disconnected from its power supply and caused an LOX valve to seal shut. A similar kind of valve heater by one of the larger companies would have cost at least thousands of dollars. Considering they are going to be able to re-create Alan Sheppard's flight for around $100k (including development costs), I think these guys are certainly ones to watch. It is also nice to see Europeans getting into the race for private spaceflight, although this is hardly the only European company involved with building launchers as well.

To me, the most promising is ARCA, based out of Romania and launching into the Black Sea. Their staging system is perhaps the most unique system I've ever seen in my life, where the "top" stage of the rocket pulls up the rest of the spacecraft with a tether. This video is one that simply must be seen to be believed and certainly is out of the box thinking by doing something nobody else has ever even tried. ARCA has also made several launch attempts to get the concept down and are getting closer to putting something up. They plan on eventually (within the decade) get to the Moon and land something up there... hopefully to win the Google Lunar X-Prize. At least they are a major competitor.

Still, Copenhagen Sub-orbital seems like they might also have a profitable niche market. Their test flights are out of the Baltic Sea, which makes life pretty exciting in terms of a missile test range.

I agree. Why should you have to pay tax dollars on this?

But at the same time, why should you prevent me through silly regulations (hint, ITAR... look it up if you like) and government policies that explicitly keep me from experimenting with or even attempting to build rockets on my own dime. The question isn't that somebody like you needs to be able to pay for me to go into space, but rather that there are people (perhaps you aren't one of them) that explicitly want to keep me down on this rock at gunpoint and will sabotage any efforts I make in regards to getting off of this rock.

Organizations like NASA are quickly becoming a relic of the past, where the money is merely a way to have a bunch of bureaucrats spin their wheels and keep some disenchanted aerospace engineers and munitions workers busy when a war isn't going on. I certainly wouldn't cry too hard if NASA was completely de-funded and disbanded by Congress.... as if they have been making any sort of relevant progress towards cost-effective spaceflight at any time over the past 40 years anyway. Doubling the NASA budget is only going to double the number of bureaucrats working in Houston, Texas. It isn't going to get anybody off of this rock in a meaningful way.

On the other hand, there are many different private spaceflight companies with real hardware that can get people into space. We don't need a government agency to get that accomplished. Yes, government grants are nice, but it isn't needed to get this task accomplished.

For myself, if government is going to get involved at all, I'd rather they simply give a "tax holiday" for all federal taxes (corporate and personal income taxes... and other kinds too) by companies directly engaged in putting equipment into space. It would certainly be far and away more cost effective than doubling the current NASA budget, and perhaps something would actually be flying beyond Low-Earth orbit too. I definitely think that such a move would cause private space investment to roar into life in a manner that has never been seen before. The loss in taxes would be minor, and I could argue that the taxes raised from support industries would by far and away more than make up for any "lost" tax receipts to such companies.... and certainly be quite a bit less than going through the appropriations meat-grinder of the U.S. Congress.

The construction of a liquid rocket engine fire test stand began in April 24, 2002. The engine used monopropellant fuel (hydrogen peroxide 68% mixed with ethylic alcohol). The first cold test with this stand was realized on May 16, 2002. The calibration of the injection head of the engine was realized the next day by using water. The results were encouraging. Only a 3% fuel debit error from the project was recorded. The pressure feed system worked at 20 bars, ensuring a 14 bars burning chamber pressure. The pressurization of the tanks was made with nitrogen from a tube at 150 bars.

I especially liked the part right under that where "[...]an explosion caused by an ignition system malfunction destroyed most of the installation."

Why is it that I always read about 1 or 2 X Prize competitors. Armadillo joined the race at the same time ARCA did but just because slashdot people like quake Armadillo gets all the glory.