Launching Yourself Into Space? Be Sure to Test First
The next time you’re launching yourself into outer space and don’t die a horrible death, be sure to thank the team at Copenhagen Suborbitals and their dedication to in-the-wild testing. For without them, DIY space travels would be even more dangerous than they already are. Here’s Wired with the story:
A do-it-yourself spaceflight program called Copenhagen Suborbitals tested their own launch escape system early on Sunday, Aug. 12 in the middle of the Baltic Sea.
The system didn’t quite work as intended. “We had perfect launch, but quickly the entire configuration began to tumble,” said Kristian von Bengtson, co-founder of Copenhagen Suborbitals. “The main chutes clearly did not have complete deployment and the capsule hit water in high speed, buckling the bottom shield.”
Yet failures are expected in any spaceflight program, especially during early hardware tests. Without them, engineers couldn’t learn how their systems truly perform. “The capsule remained intact and kept sending live data from inside the capsule,” von Bengtson said. “From a long list of things that could have gone wrong, we are very satisfied.”
