"For a bunch of New Zealanders to do it on their own dime, it's pretty cool," said lead engineer Ethan Kosoof.

A Kiwi-built amateur rocket is believed to have set a record as not just the country’s first but one of the fastest launched into space — all with home brewed beer and gin onboard.

Meraki II, a 4-metre long rocket, launched near Arthur’s Pass on April 19, reaching a peak altitude of 121.6km.

The two-stage rocket travelled at mind-boggling speeds of up to Mach 5.6, or around 1.9 kilometres a second — fast enough to cover the distance between Cape Reinga and Bluff in just over 12 minutes.

“It’s the first successful amateur non-US spaceshot, and the new velocity record-holder”

  • Bumblefumble@lemm.ee
    2·
    35 minutes ago

    Mach 5.6, or around 1.9 kilometres a second

    One of these numbers is wrong, as the mach number is defined using the local speed of sound, which changes a lot as you go further up in the thinner atmosphere.

  • qprimed@lemmy.mlEnglish
    11·
    6 hours ago

    Two minutes into its flight, the rocket reached the Kármán line, the internationally-recognised border for space at 100km. A minute later, it reached it’s peak altitude of 121.6km.

    I would be happy to just dream in this kind of joy.

  • Valmond@lemmy.world
    2·
    5 hours ago

    Wasn’t it New Zealand that had that old rocket builder guy who drove around in rocket propelled gocart? V1 styke but still.