“Amateur Rocketry”
Afterschock II reached a maximum altitude of 470,000 feet above Earth's surface, which is higher than any other amateur rocket. Its nose cone then detached and deployed a parachute before falling back to Earth. (Image credit: USC Viterbi School of Engineering)
By Scott Hamilton
I learned over the weekend about something I never realized existed – university undergraduate students participating in “homemade” rocket competitions. As it turns out, amateur rocketry has been around as a hobby since the 1950s. I knew the hobby existed, I just didn’t know about the competitions and world record holders. I was even more fascinated to learn that many of the record holders are undergrad college students.
There are only three amateur rockets that successfully reached or exceeded the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space (62 miles above mean sea level). The first was launched May 17, 2004, in Black Rock Desert, Nevada, by the Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT). The team consisted of around 30 members interested in private spacecraft. Ky Michaelson is the program director and was leading the organization during their successful launch of the GoFast rocket. GoFast reached an altitude of 72 miles, which was verified by FAA analysis of the team’s flight data. There were prior unverified claims of flights exceeding the boundaries of space by the Orbital Sciences’ Pegasus rocket and many others. GoFast reached a top speed of 3,420 miles per hour in just 10 seconds. The rocket was 21 feet tall and 10 inches in diameter. It used ammonium perchlorate-based solid propellant. They were able to repeat the accomplishment in 2014, reaching an altitude of 73 miles and hitting a top speed of 3,580 mph.
The second team that deserves a mention in amateur spaceshots is the USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (USCRPL). USCRPL is an undergraduate research group at the University of Southern California specializing in amateur rocketry. Their group achieved the first successful student spaceshot on April 21, 2019. Their rocket “Travel IV” reached an altitude of 339,800 feet (64 miles) with a top speed of 3384 mph. This made Traveler IV the highest performing student rocket in the world. It was also the first student rocket to reach space. The rocket was reported to have performed perfectly, with all subsystems working as expected. It was unfortunate however, that the GPS system lost signal for about 250 seconds of the flight and missed the apogee of the rocket. This made it difficult to verify the claims of reaching space.
A brand new group of students out of the same program broke several amateur rocketry world records last week with the launch of Aftershock II. Not only did it break the previous record from a Chinese rocket from 20-years ago, it shattered the record, exceeding it by 90,000 feet (17 miles). This record breaking rocket was an absolutely amazing accomplishment.
Aftershock II was launched on October 20, 2024, in Black Rock Desert, Nevada. The 14-foot tall, 330 pound rocket surprised everyone observing, except for the students who worked to design it. Aftershock II broke the sound barrier just two seconds after launch and reached its maximum speed of 3,600 mph just 19-seconds into the flight. The rocket’s engines then burned out, but the craft continued to climb through the decreasing atmospheric resistance, allowing it to reach a final apogee 92 seconds later at 470,000 feet (89 miles) above the Earth’s surface. Not only did Aftershock II beat student rocket records, but it flew further into space than any non-governmental and non-commercial rocket had ever flown before. The previous record was the GoFast rocket mentioned earlier. Aftershock II only slightly beat the speed record set by GoFast, but the team now holds both the speed and apogee records for amateur rocketry.
It has been stated that all the students involved in the project have been offered jobs with SpaceX, allowing their love for rocketry to become a career. Learning about these fascinating student projects made me wonder if there were even younger teams working to develop rockets, and it brought back memories of my many failed attempts as a young boy to build a rocket. If only I had learned about the science behind rockets earlier in life, I may have been a successful rocket scientist. I highly recommend reading the book “Rocket Manual for Amateurs,”by Bertrand R. Brinley, published in 1960. Brinley’s book provides very detailed designs for homemade rocket engines and fuels. While it is recommended reading, if you really want to enter the hobby, I recommend starting with rocket kits and commercially manufactured engines, as building your own is very high risk. Until next week, stay safe and learn something new.
Scott Hamilton is an Expert in Emerging Technologies at ATOS and can be reached with questions and comments via email to sh*******@te**********.org or through his website at https://www.techshepherd.org.
