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Non-Profit Space Rocket Launching In a Week

Posted by samzenpus on from the diy-to-the-stars dept.

Plammox writes "A non-profit suborbital space endeavor lead by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen is trying to put a man in space. The first test of the boosters and space craft in combination with the sea launch platform will take place this week. The catch? All of this is a non-profit project based on voluntary labor and sponsors. How will they get the launch platform out in the middle of the Baltic sea to perform the test? With the founder's home-built submarine pushing it, of course."

5 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. I love these guys by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Informative

    Check out the spacecraft: http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/spacecraft.php

    Sven the crash test dummy is in for a wild ride!

    The pace at which they've managed to do this work is phenomenal.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:I love these guys by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why do so many people have a grasp of rocketry as "stuff other people have already done". When you think about learning guitar do you ever find yourself saying "nah, they already did that in the '50s".

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
  2. Good thread about this over at SA by interactive_civilian · · Score: 5, Informative

    I caught this story on Fark, and they linked to a really good thread over on the Something Awful forums with posts directly from these people.
    We've made the world's amateur largest space rocket

    If you don't want to read all 17 pages, just skim through looking for posts by user frumpykvetchbot.

    This is completely awesome, and I wish them the best of luck with the test launch this weekend. :D

    --
    "Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
  3. Re:Suborbital by mangu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    basically a glorified carnival ride, a couple of magnitudes easier than fully orbital.

    Considering they are launching it from a sea launch platform they built, which will be towed to sea with the submarine they built, I'd say this is several orders of magnitude more awesome than what anybody else ever did.

    Let's see, how many orders of magnitude harder things have you ever done? Links, please.

  4. If you like it, please, donate by roger_pasky · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm proud to be a donor, and this is one of the best expenditures I've ever done.

    Once I knew about them one year ago (through Slashdot, by the way) I told my wife: "If I stop being a rocket modelling fan forever, will you let me give them the money I planned to spend on rocket models for the rest of my life? It could be the way to be part of a really big thing".

    And she said: "Ok, but I don't want to know if he dies or not".

    I think it's a fair deal, so I gave them a huge amount of money and I won't tell her about the final result.