The spacecraft, Aftershock II, has now bested a 20-year-old record held by hobbyists with the Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT), who managed to launch their rocket 380,000-feet high in 2004.

But USC's Aftershock II also reached hypersonic speeds — reaching a maximum velocity of 5,283 feet-per-second at Mach 5.5, or over five times the speed of sound.

Now their intentionally lightweight rocket, which comes in at about 330 pounds, has made history as the first launch by individuals outside of government or private industry to ever ascend this far beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Undergraduate student Ryan Kraemer,, who worked as an executive engineer on the project, said Aftershock II boasted 'the most powerful solid-propellant motor ever fired by students and the most powerful composite case motor made by amateurs.'

The 13-ft tall, eight-inch diameter craft was fueled by a custom-made, 'ammonium perchlorate composite' solid chemical propellant, invented by students themselves.

'Using a formula developed by students in the club,' according to the USC Rocket Propulsion Lab (USCRPL), 'each propellant grain is made by USCRPL starting from raw chemicals, setting the club apart from many other collegiate rocketry teams.'

Fittingly, USC's Aftershock II and CSXT's prior record-holder were both launched from the same spot: the remote Black Rock Desert, 100 miles north of Reno, Nevada.

USCRPL students last made history in 2019, when the club became the first student group to fire a rocket above the Kármán line: the internationally recognized legal boundary dividing Earth's atmosphere from outer space, 62 miles above sea level.

Aftershock II climbed a further 27 miles into space, for a total of 89 miles.

'This extraordinary group of students shows how to imagine, what can be done in the lab, and how to make it a reality.' Yannis Yortsos, dean of the USC's Los Angeles-based Viterbi School of Engineering, said in a university statement. 

'It is thrilling to see how they have now shattered not only their previous global student record of reaching the Kármán line,' Yortsos added, 'but also the record of any amateur team in history.'