Wired tells us about Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen and their efforts to launch themselves into space on a homemade rocket.
Von Bengtson, an aerospace scientist and former NASA contractor, and Madsen, an entrepreneur and aerospace engineer, founded their nonprofit, do-it-yourself space program, dubbed Copenhagen Suborbitals, after a 2008 chat on a 40-ton submarine Madsen had built in his spare time. Since then they have enlisted 30 volunteer experts, conducted 50 static rocket-engine tests at their Copenhagen, Denmark, headquarters and launched the largest “amateur” rocket ever built, the 9.5-meter HEAT 1X Tycho Brahe, in June 2011.
Their ultimate goal is to launch a person about 100 kilometers miles above the Earth, considered the boundary of outer space.
“We have gone from having a crazy idea on a submarine to a smoothly run organization that builds rockets and spacecraft, and has experience with big launches,” von Bengtson said. “It feels like we have become a part of a new era in space.”
