Copenhagen Suborbitals launches test rocket!

Rocketeers Peter Madsen and Kristian von Bengsten. Credit: Copenhagen Suborbitals

Just a small step for all mankind if you compare with NASA or SpaceX, but what a huge leap for all of us aspiring astronauts. Two guys with a vision and a strong desire for personal spaceflight and some 20+ volunteers and some $60,000 built and launched a rocket today. So it went only to a height of 2.8km and some 8+ km down range, the parachutes got tangled up... but they did it. They launched a rocket! This is so exciting.

There are so many private entrepreneurs building rockets these days ranging from Elon Musk's SpaceX, to Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic to Jeff Greason's XCOR Aerospace, and Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin to name a few... all of this has only renewed my faith that someday soon I will have my turn to live out my childhood dream of being an astronaut and flying in space. Today was a great day for all of us who dream of someday seeing the Earth from the outside. Congratulations Copenhagen Suborbitals!

Liftoff of HEAT 1X and TYCHO BRAHE. Credit: Copenhagen Suborbitals

Credit: Copenhagen Suborbitals

Launch video in Danish...



Copenhagen Suborbitals to launch a test rocket on Friday

Credit: Copenhagen Suborbitals

Copenhagen Suborbitals announced today that they have completed all testing and are GO for launch tomorrow of the HEAT 1X rocket and the TYCHO BRAHE spacecraft. Designed and built by two Danish rocketeers Kristian von Bengston and Peter Madsen, the unmanned launch is scheduled at about 3:00pm Danish time. Additional information about the launch including live video can be found here and here. Additional updates from the launch team is also being posted on their Facebook page. Latest reports from the group states that the rocket and the launch platform (Sputnik) has been towed to the launch area located in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark. So far it seems that sea and weather conditions are optimal for the launch.

Overview of the TYCHO BRAHE Spacecraft: Credit: Copenhagen Suborbitals

Credit: Copenhagen Suborbitals

If all goes well tomorrow, the plan is for Peter Madsen to be on the first manned flight sometime in the near future. The eventual goal is to launch paying tourists on this single seat spacecraft on suborbital flights to altitudes of 100 kilometers (62.5 miles). The spacecraft including the astronaut is 3.5 meters long, with a 64cm diameter and a weight of about 300kg. Other data on the spacecraft specifies a 15 mm cork as a heat shield and a "personal parachute for panic egress". From the sketch above it appears that the astronaut will be standing/sitting upright in the small capsule with a clear view through the Plexiglas's dome of the entire ballistic ride. It looks like it will be one wild ride!

PS. I am hoping my wife reads this blog post. IF she does, the yellow lab puppy and the Ducati can be recategorized as a "sure shots".

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams - Space Race II

STS-134

Endeavour's final flight is currently underway with touch down at KSC planned for 1 June 2011 at 2:32am EDT. After decommissioning Endeavour will be displayed at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. So expect some detailed photographs of this amazing spaceship sometime in the future.

Alan Shepard: The First American in Space

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space. He was launched on a Redstone rocket, and unlike Gagarin's 108-minute orbital flight, Shepard stayed on a ballistic trajectory - a 15-minute suborbital flight which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles (187 km) and to a splashdown point 302 statute miles (486 km) down the Atlantic Missile Range. Unlike Gagarin, whose flight was strictly automatic, Shepard had some control of Freedom 7. He made his second space flight as commander of Apollo 14 from January 31-February 9, 1971, America's third successful lunar landing mission. Shepard piloted the Lunar Module Antares to the most accurate landing of the entire Apollo program.

Following Apollo 14, Shepard returned to his position as Chief of the Astronaut Office in June. He was promoted to rear admiral before retiring both from the Navy and NASA on August 1, 1974. He died of leukemia near his home in Pebble Beach, California on July 21, 1998. Alan Shepard was a true American Hero.