Copenhagen Suborbital Plans First Launch August 30th
A couple of enterprising Danes are getting set to launch what
they say is the first amateur-built rocket designed to eventually
carry a person into the fringes of space. And one of its inventors
plans to be the first to take the ride.
The rocket HEAT-1X/Tycho Brahe after final
assembly
If all goes well, Copenhagen Suborbital's HEAT, which stands for
Hybrid Exo Atmospheric Transporter, will be towed into the Baltic
Sea by a submarine also built by the entrepreneurs, and launched to
an altitude of about 19 miles. If next Monday's launch is
successful, co-founder Peter Madsen hopes to be the first to make a
sub-orbital flight in the spacecraft.
If he succeeds, Denmark would become only the 4th nation to
launch a human being into space.
Kristian von Bengtson inside his self-made spacecraft.
Peter Madsen standing outside
The London Daily Mail reported that Masden and Kristian von
Bengtson have been working on the project for several
years. The two say they are building two rockets,
a small unmanned sounding rocket, named Hybrid Atmospheric
Test Vehicle or HATV and the larger HEAT booster
rocket designed to carry a micro spacecraft into a suborbital
trajectory in space. Both are being built without any
government assistance by the non-profit organization led by the
two, using funds raised by sponsorships and donations., the two say
they are "working full time to develop a series of suborbital space
vehicles – designed to pave the way for manned space flight
on a micro size spacecraft."
The booster was test-fired successfully both in February and
May. Masden and von Bengtson said in a news conference
that the rocket will generate about 40kN of thrust over a 60
second burn, which should allow a person to tolerate the
acceleration in a standing position. On reaching apogee, the
booster will be jettisoned, and the "Tycho Brahe" capsule, which
would eventually be the manned portion of the
spacecraft, will return to earth under three main parachutes,
touching down in the water like so many U.S. space missions.
Spacecraft Tycho Brahe designed by Kristian von Bengtson
with crash test dummy
The Copenhagen Suborbital team says there is little in the way
of guidance for the rocket once it's launched. It has only fixed
stabilizing fins, and a large launch tower will hopefully give it
the stability it needs until it's going fast enough to reach
sub-orbital altitudes. But the inventors say they are looking at a
way to provide some "basic" steering for the rocket.
There is a countdown clock on the website. We'll be
watching.