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TU Delft team ready to launch their rocket, the Stratos II (Photo: TU Delft)
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TU Delft team ready to launch their rocket, the Stratos II (Photo: TU Delft)
Thursday, 15 October 2015 - 16:14
Live Video: TU Delft team goes for homemade rocket record at 4pm CEST
Update, 16:40, 15 October 2015: The scheduled launch of the Stratos II+ rocket failed, according to the DARE team. "We seem to have failed to ignite the engine," they said in a statement.
A team of students from TU Delft is preparing to launch their homemade rocket to do research in the highest layers of the atmosphere. The rocket is set to launch at 4pm CEST from southern Spain and will reach an altitude of 50 kilometers. The team's ultimate goal is to be the first student team to send a rocket into space - altitude of 100 kilometers.
The rocket, the Stratos II+ was built by Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering and a team of TU Delft Students. It runs on fuel the students designed using ingredients that can also be found in coffee sweeteners and candle wax.
The Stratos II+ was initially scheduled to launch on Wednesday, but the time had to be moved on by one day due to problems during the last test. The team made the same attempt last year, but it failed at the last moment due to a frozen valve.
According to TU Delft, this launch has to take the team one giant step forward towards reaching their goal of being the first student team to launch a rocket into space.