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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Look Out Elon--A Bunch of Students Have Set a Rocket Record

• Wired by Jack Stewart
 

Then the tech titans proved anyone with a few billion dollars could get there. Now, a bunch of students have shown that getting off Earth doesn't even have to cost that much.

On a peanuts budget and working in their spare time, engineering undergrads at the University of Southern California designed and manufactured a rocket they call Fathom II. In March, they launched it from Spaceport America in New Mexico. It reached 144,000 feet before deploying its parachute and returning to Earth. That's around five times the cruising altitude of a passenger plane, doubling the height of the group's previous launch, and sets a new altitude record for a student-built rocket.

 
 


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