hi so I’m Matt Wilson and I am part of
this group in Copenhagen this group of
crazy people who are the first amateur
organization in the world that are
trying to build a rocket that can put a
human being in space and this might seem
a little crazy to you right but actually
this is possible because the Americans
and the Russians they put the first
person in space back in the 50s the
technologies used back then work with
cutting-edge but today the technology we
have available to us the things that you
can buy in a normal hardware store is
actually sufficiently advanced to be
able to build a rocket and put a man in
space we are based in Copenhagen we have
a workshop that are located in the old
blue mist and Vine shipyard this is the
what you see here on the picture and
that is where we’re working days nights
weekends once we have time from our day
jobs and this picture here I have chosen
because you can see that little fine
white line that is actually the
International Space Station passing over
Copenhagen just at the time when the
first Danish astronaut andreas Monson
was aboard the space station so that
night we were all standing out there
looking up and just like sharing our
dream because basically where he was
that is where we want to go so you might
thinking but how are they going to pull
this off right because launching a
rocket business not just something that
that you do and it involves a lot of
work and a lot of people actually
building the rocket is only a very very
small part you also need a place to
launch the rocket right you need to
transport the rocket you need all kinds
of support systems you need to have
recovery because I mean whatever comes
up also must come down right so what we
are trying to do is not a orbital
machine we’re not trying to
a human around whoa we’re not trying to
shoot for the moon really even though we
probably will get quite close we are
trying to just build a rocket that can
send a human being above the comment
line which is hundred kilometres that is
the official boundary to space and then
making him come back safely again and
that is the important part
really safety because when you’re
designing a rocket like this and you’re
designing a rocket to put a man in space
everything is about that man the human
factors because everything you do design
wise is related to what does it take to
make this human being survive the trip
right and what you need to look at is
what the human body can withstand
because when you’re lifting up from the
ground in a rocket you need to pick up
immense speed we need our rocket we’re
talking about 3.5 times the speed of
sound just to go up to 100 kilometers so
that acceleration that is put into that
vehicle your body needs to withstand so
it means that when you are in the rocket
it’s not irrelevant how you your body is
oriented that is why you see when you
look back at there at the space flight
or the year there the moon the moon
flights back in the 60s the astronaut
was always lying on his back because
that is the position where the human
body can take the most acceleration but
doing that you will have a very big
catcher and we cannot handle that so
what we have done instead is we have
consulted with we have some doctors on
our team and we have found a way where
we can actually do the next best thing
which would be to have the astronaut
like this like in a cannonball position
in a small capsule and that means that
we can build a capsule that is 1 meter
and I 1 meter in diameter and that
capsule can then sit atop a 15 meter
rocket and we can just hurl our
astronaut into space so what does it
take to be our first astronaut well you
need to be small light you need not to
be that afraid of small spaces right you
also need to be very fit because because
the stress
you are putting on your body is actually
quite immense also you need to have some
tolerance of the sea because we’re
launching from sea on a floating
platform that we build ourselves and the
astronaut needs to be placed in the
rocket a long time before launch so just
imagine you sitting atop a 15 meter
rocket on a platform that is just slowly
moving beneath you in this little can in
the summer heat while all your friends
are running around checking wires fixing
things and just waiting for that short
ride so you need you need to be very
tolerant of those kinds of stress so I’m
going to explain the mission I’ve said
before that this is a suborbital mission
so basically it means that we have the
rocket on the platform and if the
astronaut hasn’t died or fainted yet
just by sitting in the can then we will
be ready to to lift him off and then the
the engine will will ignite and it will
burn for 90 seconds in those 90 seconds
the astronaut will be hurled from 0 to
50 kilometers and the rocket will have a
speed of 3.5 times the speed of sound
then the engine stops and at that point
that would also feels like be kicking it
kicked in the head by a horse because
then you have deceleration because all
of a sudden the engine just stops right
but the rocket itself will still have
enough speed to reach another 50
kilometers so we reach the common line
the edge of space and then then now the
fort now the fun part starts
just then the capsule will be separated
from the rocket and because we are in
freefall and almost weightless it’ll
just start tumbling tumbling around so
he’ll be looking out of his little
window just seeing the earth go by like
that right and whatever goes up must
come down so the capsule will just start
falling and then it’s very important
that we orient the capsule the right way
because all that energy that we have
built up in the rocket and the capsule
that energy must go somewhere and the
only way that we can get rid of that
energy is by the heat shield so that
once we start hitting the atmosphere
then
the the air around the capsule will
start heating up and it from the
astronauts point of view it would just
look like everything is burning around
him so he’s coming down through the
atmosphere and then at about three or
four kilometers we will release the
parachutes
hopefully they will work and then he
will land safely in the water and now
the real really dangerous part begins
because he will be lying in the water
maybe twenty or thirty kilometers away
from the launch site so we need to sail
over there we need to try to foresee
where he will land and we need to sail
over there to get him so that’s going to
be very interesting just lying there
bobbing around with a little capsule
this is on this is not all fantasy I
mean we have been building Rockets since
2008 and we have launched quite a few
and back in 2014 we actually had what we
thought would be our big rocket but
sometimes things doesn’t go as you
what you see here is the result of a
very very small design flaw we build a
big rocket we are very confident that we
had everything in place we could build
this rocket and we could do the first
shot to a hundred kilometers with this
rocket now for the man inside just to
prove it just to check all the flight
events and then we tested this in our
test stand and and what you see here is
the engine rupturing and all the alcohol
or the fuel and the tanks just spilled
out in two seconds and that fire that
created was then fed by pure oxygen just
pouring out of the rocket so everything
burned right I was standing in the
bunker next to it like a hundred meters
away and everything just went up in this
huge fireball and I looked at the people
around me and I could see the
disappointment on their faces I mean
thousands of hours just lost right there
but then after a minute or so once they
have recovered themselves they they
asked I start lighting up again and I
could see that they were just thinking
hey let’s go build another one and that
is actually what we did we built two
Rockets we we scrapped everything and we
just said okay we need to start over we
need to create smaller rockets that are
easier to build and easier to handle
so that we can try out all the flight
events and that is what we did with the
nixar mission we launched the next two
rocket just three weeks ago from the
Baltic Sea and that was a huge success
we managed to get precisely the flight
profile we needed we managed to try out
and succeed with all the steps that we
need for the manned mission what you see
here is the video that was recorded by
the onboard cameras of the rocket so you
can see it taking off from the platform
you can see the side view camera just
looking out that would be what the
astronaut will see when he is flying and
underneath that you can see the small
blinking light the small blinking light
is actually just a little feature we put
in so that we could see that the camera
was working because that camera is
looking into the parachute department it
is looking upwards and the huge thing
about this mission was that we needed to
see that
house you’d go out all the rockets we
have send up previously have had several
floors but the biggest one that was that
none of them really came down in a
parachute so that is what we really
really wanted and that was the icing on
the cake that day that was to see first
because we could see the live feed we
could see the nose cone separating and
we can see could see the parachute
coming out and then later on when we sat
in Mission Control oh and were looking
out we can see this we can just see the
rocket coming down slowly in its
parachute this is the team that built
and launched the rocket but our team is
actually much bigger than the 50 people
working on this because the way we fund
all this we all work for free so we put
in our hours but the way we fund it is
that we have people from all over the
world that share our dream people who
think that this is actually possible and
then they sign up as support us and just
pay a small fee a small amount of money
to us every month and that is what we
use for rent and materials and fuel and
everything so we are not just a team of
50 we are actually a team of several
thousand people all over the world and
if you count in all the people that are
following us on social media people that
we put out videos and blocks so that
they can see what this we’re doing then
we are tens of thousands of people all
over the world and this is important
because you can have a dream you can
have a small group that has a dream but
once you start lifting that dream and
once you start just inspiring other
people that is when the real fun starts
to happen because because once you are
people from all over the world with all
their contacts all their knowledge all
their ideas then you can do things that
are truly truly truly amazing so I
actually think deep from my heart that
someday we will succeed it might take
some time and we might bang our head
against the wall several times we
have done that already right we might
run out of money at some point but we
will try and then someday we will not be
looking up but actually we will be
looking down just as address the Dana
session of this those days where he
actually while we were looking up at the
space station he sent us this picture as
a greeting saying hey guys I’m I’m
cheering for you and I really really
hope that you’re missing mission succeeds and that’s all thank you
this group in Copenhagen this group of
crazy people who are the first amateur
organization in the world that are
trying to build a rocket that can put a
human being in space and this might seem
a little crazy to you right but actually
this is possible because the Americans
and the Russians they put the first
person in space back in the 50s the
technologies used back then work with
cutting-edge but today the technology we
have available to us the things that you
can buy in a normal hardware store is
actually sufficiently advanced to be
able to build a rocket and put a man in
space we are based in Copenhagen we have
a workshop that are located in the old
blue mist and Vine shipyard this is the
what you see here on the picture and
that is where we’re working days nights
weekends once we have time from our day
jobs and this picture here I have chosen
because you can see that little fine
white line that is actually the
International Space Station passing over
Copenhagen just at the time when the
first Danish astronaut andreas Monson
was aboard the space station so that
night we were all standing out there
looking up and just like sharing our
dream because basically where he was
that is where we want to go so you might
thinking but how are they going to pull
this off right because launching a
rocket business not just something that
that you do and it involves a lot of
work and a lot of people actually
building the rocket is only a very very
small part you also need a place to
launch the rocket right you need to
transport the rocket you need all kinds
of support systems you need to have
recovery because I mean whatever comes
up also must come down right so what we
are trying to do is not a orbital
machine we’re not trying to
a human around whoa we’re not trying to
shoot for the moon really even though we
probably will get quite close we are
trying to just build a rocket that can
send a human being above the comment
line which is hundred kilometres that is
the official boundary to space and then
making him come back safely again and
that is the important part
really safety because when you’re
designing a rocket like this and you’re
designing a rocket to put a man in space
everything is about that man the human
factors because everything you do design
wise is related to what does it take to
make this human being survive the trip
right and what you need to look at is
what the human body can withstand
because when you’re lifting up from the
ground in a rocket you need to pick up
immense speed we need our rocket we’re
talking about 3.5 times the speed of
sound just to go up to 100 kilometers so
that acceleration that is put into that
vehicle your body needs to withstand so
it means that when you are in the rocket
it’s not irrelevant how you your body is
oriented that is why you see when you
look back at there at the space flight
or the year there the moon the moon
flights back in the 60s the astronaut
was always lying on his back because
that is the position where the human
body can take the most acceleration but
doing that you will have a very big
catcher and we cannot handle that so
what we have done instead is we have
consulted with we have some doctors on
our team and we have found a way where
we can actually do the next best thing
which would be to have the astronaut
like this like in a cannonball position
in a small capsule and that means that
we can build a capsule that is 1 meter
and I 1 meter in diameter and that
capsule can then sit atop a 15 meter
rocket and we can just hurl our
astronaut into space so what does it
take to be our first astronaut well you
need to be small light you need not to
be that afraid of small spaces right you
also need to be very fit because because
the stress
you are putting on your body is actually
quite immense also you need to have some
tolerance of the sea because we’re
launching from sea on a floating
platform that we build ourselves and the
astronaut needs to be placed in the
rocket a long time before launch so just
imagine you sitting atop a 15 meter
rocket on a platform that is just slowly
moving beneath you in this little can in
the summer heat while all your friends
are running around checking wires fixing
things and just waiting for that short
ride so you need you need to be very
tolerant of those kinds of stress so I’m
going to explain the mission I’ve said
before that this is a suborbital mission
so basically it means that we have the
rocket on the platform and if the
astronaut hasn’t died or fainted yet
just by sitting in the can then we will
be ready to to lift him off and then the
the engine will will ignite and it will
burn for 90 seconds in those 90 seconds
the astronaut will be hurled from 0 to
50 kilometers and the rocket will have a
speed of 3.5 times the speed of sound
then the engine stops and at that point
that would also feels like be kicking it
kicked in the head by a horse because
then you have deceleration because all
of a sudden the engine just stops right
but the rocket itself will still have
enough speed to reach another 50
kilometers so we reach the common line
the edge of space and then then now the
fort now the fun part starts
just then the capsule will be separated
from the rocket and because we are in
freefall and almost weightless it’ll
just start tumbling tumbling around so
he’ll be looking out of his little
window just seeing the earth go by like
that right and whatever goes up must
come down so the capsule will just start
falling and then it’s very important
that we orient the capsule the right way
because all that energy that we have
built up in the rocket and the capsule
that energy must go somewhere and the
only way that we can get rid of that
energy is by the heat shield so that
once we start hitting the atmosphere
then
the the air around the capsule will
start heating up and it from the
astronauts point of view it would just
look like everything is burning around
him so he’s coming down through the
atmosphere and then at about three or
four kilometers we will release the
parachutes
hopefully they will work and then he
will land safely in the water and now
the real really dangerous part begins
because he will be lying in the water
maybe twenty or thirty kilometers away
from the launch site so we need to sail
over there we need to try to foresee
where he will land and we need to sail
over there to get him so that’s going to
be very interesting just lying there
bobbing around with a little capsule
this is on this is not all fantasy I
mean we have been building Rockets since
2008 and we have launched quite a few
and back in 2014 we actually had what we
thought would be our big rocket but
sometimes things doesn’t go as you
what you see here is the result of a
very very small design flaw we build a
big rocket we are very confident that we
had everything in place we could build
this rocket and we could do the first
shot to a hundred kilometers with this
rocket now for the man inside just to
prove it just to check all the flight
events and then we tested this in our
test stand and and what you see here is
the engine rupturing and all the alcohol
or the fuel and the tanks just spilled
out in two seconds and that fire that
created was then fed by pure oxygen just
pouring out of the rocket so everything
burned right I was standing in the
bunker next to it like a hundred meters
away and everything just went up in this
huge fireball and I looked at the people
around me and I could see the
disappointment on their faces I mean
thousands of hours just lost right there
but then after a minute or so once they
have recovered themselves they they
asked I start lighting up again and I
could see that they were just thinking
hey let’s go build another one and that
is actually what we did we built two
Rockets we we scrapped everything and we
just said okay we need to start over we
need to create smaller rockets that are
easier to build and easier to handle
so that we can try out all the flight
events and that is what we did with the
nixar mission we launched the next two
rocket just three weeks ago from the
Baltic Sea and that was a huge success
we managed to get precisely the flight
profile we needed we managed to try out
and succeed with all the steps that we
need for the manned mission what you see
here is the video that was recorded by
the onboard cameras of the rocket so you
can see it taking off from the platform
you can see the side view camera just
looking out that would be what the
astronaut will see when he is flying and
underneath that you can see the small
blinking light the small blinking light
is actually just a little feature we put
in so that we could see that the camera
was working because that camera is
looking into the parachute department it
is looking upwards and the huge thing
about this mission was that we needed to
see that
house you’d go out all the rockets we
have send up previously have had several
floors but the biggest one that was that
none of them really came down in a
parachute so that is what we really
really wanted and that was the icing on
the cake that day that was to see first
because we could see the live feed we
could see the nose cone separating and
we can see could see the parachute
coming out and then later on when we sat
in Mission Control oh and were looking
out we can see this we can just see the
rocket coming down slowly in its
parachute this is the team that built
and launched the rocket but our team is
actually much bigger than the 50 people
working on this because the way we fund
all this we all work for free so we put
in our hours but the way we fund it is
that we have people from all over the
world that share our dream people who
think that this is actually possible and
then they sign up as support us and just
pay a small fee a small amount of money
to us every month and that is what we
use for rent and materials and fuel and
everything so we are not just a team of
50 we are actually a team of several
thousand people all over the world and
if you count in all the people that are
following us on social media people that
we put out videos and blocks so that
they can see what this we’re doing then
we are tens of thousands of people all
over the world and this is important
because you can have a dream you can
have a small group that has a dream but
once you start lifting that dream and
once you start just inspiring other
people that is when the real fun starts
to happen because because once you are
people from all over the world with all
their contacts all their knowledge all
their ideas then you can do things that
are truly truly truly amazing so I
actually think deep from my heart that
someday we will succeed it might take
some time and we might bang our head
against the wall several times we
have done that already right we might
run out of money at some point but we
will try and then someday we will not be
looking up but actually we will be
looking down just as address the Dana
session of this those days where he
actually while we were looking up at the
space station he sent us this picture as
a greeting saying hey guys I’m I’m
cheering for you and I really really
hope that you’re missing mission succeeds and that’s all thank you
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