Kiwi Rocket Scares Sheep, Reaches Space

Congratulations to all Kiwis.

And great to see the entire NZ Parliament turned up to watch the launch.

Harsh bit figging funny - GA

And great to see the entire NZ Parliament turned up to watch the launch.

50 people (and some sheep), I wish. We have 122, FAR to many for a small country like New Zealand (in comparison the US has 535).

didnt some college kids just do that with a hot air balloon,and they took pictures from "up there". Who couldnt hit space with a rocket??

Re: "Who couldnt hit space with a rocket??" Hmmm..........

Uh ... when wuz the last time that YOU accomplished this feat...?

My area of expertise is making limbs fly over rooftops. With a big enough budget i can rig and make an entire tree fly over a house.Putting a rocket in space now is just basically having the desire to,and enough money.It is not a noteworthy accomplishment,in this century,anyway.Did you know evil keneivels(or howerver its spelled) rocket powered motorcycle he tried to jump across the snake river canyon/ gourge on was just a titanium ball with some water in it,a propane burner and a release valve on wheels.Give me a big enough budget, and i can push the launch button as well as anyone.

Yes (and it was quite impressive, especially the video) but it only made it to a height of 18 miles (in the area called the stratosphere) before the balloon popped, well below the Kármán line which is around 62 miles and commonly acknowledged as the border between space and the edge of space.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line

Getting to the 'edge of space' is relatively easy, but if you want to go further it is MUCH harder and you need a rocket and sophisticated equipment (a weather balloon, camcorder and Styrofoam housing won't do, not even on a cut-down NASA budget).

Down home high tech - I love it.