I didn’t fly many rockets between LDRS in Argonia in 1999 (when I was 15) and the first year of NASA’s University Student Launch Initiative competition (when I was in my fourth of five years in college). I also didn’t keep up with the rocketry hobby/industry online as much during that time, so I missed some pretty outstanding projects.
One of the most extraordinary amateur rockets flown in the last decade was the Civilian Space Exploration Team’s Go Fast rocket, the first amateur rocket to reach space. It flew 72 miles at a max speed of Mach 5. (Documented at Derek Deville’s website.)
The Go Fast rocket was 10″ in diameter, 21 feet long, and weight 724 lbs, of which an impressive 435 pounds was propellant. In hobby terms, the motor came out to an S50150.
To get an idea of how high 72 miles is, check out this diagram, which shows the highest commercial airliners, highest military aircraft, and how high Go Fast went. Wowser.
Many projects this size are never recovered, or end up buried far underground. Go Fast’s payload section was fully recovered. The manpower involved in finding the space vehicle is covered at Stratofox, along with some fascinating analysis of the sonic booms created on reentry.
The video on YouTube includes these technical details from Derek Deville:
The motor produced a peak thrust of 16,000 lbs accelerating the vehicle at 23 g’s. At 10.5 seconds into the flight the vehicle was at about 40,000 feet and traveling at 3,420 mph (Mach 5) setting an amateur speed record. After motor burnout at 49,000 feet the rocket continued to coast upwards for an amazing 330,000 feet over 145 seconds before reaching apogee. All portions of the vehicle were recovered.
And, liftoff:
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