\n<\/ps-list-anchor-links>\nA team of students at the University of Southern California has officially set a new record for the highest amateur space launch \u2014 and they\u2019ve set the bar very, very high for anyone who tries to beat it.<\/p>\n
The rocket, Aftershock II, reached a height of about 470,000 feet (about 90 miles), passing the existing record for highest amateur space flight by about 80,000 feet.<\/p>\n\n<\/ps-anchor>\nThe launch<\/h2>\n
The team\u2019s successful launch took place on Oct. 20, though it took roughly a month for the student team to verify the data via a report this month. That data showed that the amateur rocket traveled roughly five-and-a-half times the speed of sound during the launch.<\/p>\n
To perform the test, students from the USC Rocket Propulsion Lab traveled to the Black Rock Desert, since the playas and dry lake beds there proved suitable for a launch. <\/b>(You may also recognize it as the location of Burning Man.) <\/p>\n
There were some hiccups, though \u2014 namely, when a rain storm came through and threatened to derail the launch, which the team had been carefully planning for months.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were pretty much being told and being shown that the entire playa was covered in water, and that we wouldn’t be able to go out and launch,\u201d said Jayna Rybner, the USC Rocket Propulsion Lab\u2019s operations lead. \u201cWater doesn’t just soak through and go away, but it’ll sit there, it’ll make the surface impossible to get across.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the team made the decision to try to launch the rocket anyway when the rain let up \u2014 and as it turned out, it worked.<\/p>\n