A team of college students from the University of Southern California (USC) has broken the world record for the highest altitude reached by a rocket launched by amateurs. The USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory club launched their self-built Aftershock II rocket from Nevada’s Black Rock Desert on October 20, soaring an impressive 89 miles above Earth. The students also set a new record for the fastest speed reached by an amateur rocket, achieving a blazing speed of one mile per second.
The previous altitude record of 73 miles was set 20 years ago by the Civilian Space Exploration Team. “This was probably the coolest thing we had ever gotten the opportunity to do,” said Operations Lead and aerospace engineering major Jayna Rybner. We’re just college students who have homework and dishes and groceries to do, and we just sent a rocket to space.
We broke the world record and sent a rocket higher than any [amateur] ever has.”
The mission was entirely student-run, including rocket construction, fundraising efforts, safety procedures, and external communications. “It’s like a mini-corporation,” said Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department Chair, Professor Paul David Ronney.
USC students’ record-breaking launch
The students that have come out of that lab have gone on to leadership positions in all major aerospace companies.”
The students crafted their own computer systems and circuit boards from scratch to track the rocket in real time. It is important to know that all this technology is developed by our students themselves,” said USC Viterbi School of Engineering Dean Yannis Yortsos. “Our students get advice from the faculty, but they develop everything on their own… We’re so proud of them because they can do this on their own.”
Aftershock II weighed 330 pounds, stood 13 feet tall with an 8-inch diameter, and featured titanium-coated fins to endure hypersonic speeds.
It was equipped with a new avionics unit and improved safety and data integration systems. The rocket achieved a velocity of 5283 ft/s and Mach 5.5, thanks to its powerful solid-propellant motor and advanced thermal protection system. The record-shattering rocket launch was only about 3.8 miles short of the altitude allowed for amateur rocketry.
The students are optimistic about breaking new records in the future. “Some newer members of the club walked over, and we said to them, ‘Hey, this may have been the coolest thing we’ve ever done, but this is not going to be the coolest thing you guys have ever done,” Rybner said. “This freshman class has four more years to take what we did and do it even crazier, even better, even cheaper, even better to manufacture.”
Noah Nguyen is a multi-talented developer who brings a unique perspective to his craft. Initially a creative writing professor, he turned to Dev work for the ability to work remotely. He now lives in Seattle, spending time hiking and drinking craft beer with his fiancee.
