Pictures: Homemade Personal Spacecraft Lifts Off

Tycho Takes Flight
Photograph courtesy Bo Tornvig, Copenhagen Suborbitals
Private spaceflight took one giant step forward this week when the Tycho Brahe craft lifted off atop the HEAT-1X rocket engine Friday (pictured) from a platform in the Baltic Sea.
A group of Danish volunteers launched the homemade spacecraft from the floating platform Sputnik, located near the Danish island of Bornholm (see map), according to the Copenhagen Post.
During its test flight, Tycho Brahe reached a height of 1.7 miles (2.8 kilometers), the Post reported. The eventual goal is be to send the craft nearly a hundred miles (160 kilometers) into space, or about halfway to the International Space Station.
Named after a 16th-century Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe (TEE-ko brah) holds one person—or, as in Friday's test flight, one crash-test dummy.
Rocket developers Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen, who both have spacecraft and rocket-engineering experience, founded the nonprofit Copenhagen Suborbital to pave the way for manned spaceflight on a "micro size" spacecraft such as Tycho Brahe.
"It's a success that we have gotten the rocket up into the air, and I think that we have written a little bit of history," von Bengtson told the Post.
(Also see "World's Largest Model Rocket Launch Is Blazing Success.")
—Rachel Kaufman
Published June 8, 2011
Tight Quarters
Photograph courtesy Thomas Pedersen, Copenhagen Suborbitals
In the Tycho Brahe craft, the astronaut-pilot (or crash-test dummy, as pictured) half-stands, half-sits—strapped in except for his or her arms.
The pilot should be able to use a joystick to control small thrusters on the side of the ship, grab a camera to take pictures, or grab a vomit bag for the inevitable.
(See pictures of early U.S. spaceflight.)
Published June 8, 2011
Flight Prep
Photograph courtesy Steen Andersen, Copenhagen Suborbitals
In preparation for the June 3 launch, Tycho Brahe is hoisted atop the HEAT-1X rocket engine in an undated picture.
The project, which has cost about U.S. $70,000 so far, is funded entirely by corporate sponsors and private donations.
That's a "shoestring" amount, said Charles Lurio, an independent spaceflight consultant and writer/editor of The Lurio Report, a newsletter tracking developments in spaceflight.
So far, Copenhagen Suborbitals appears to have taken every precaution, but their small budget may lead them to take greater risks in the future, he added.
"I think they should be careful about that, but I applaud them for taking up the mantle out there in Denmark."
(Also see "Private Spacecraft Roars to Space and Back.")
Published June 8, 2011
Ready for Launch
Photograph courtesy Thomas Pedersen, Copenhagen Suborbitals
The HEAT 1X rocket and Tycho Brahe spacecraft stand assembled and ready to launch in an undated picture.
Friday's flight gave the Tycho Brahe scientists data on what kind of g-forces and temperature changes an astronaut-pilot would experience.
Madsen and von Bengston have estimated that a passenger in Tycho Brahe would pull "3 to 4 Gs, lowball figures"—or 5 Gs in a worst-case scenario. Most humans would lose consciousness around the 5-G mark.
(See "Shuttle's Human Experiments Pave Way for Moon, Mars Voyages.")
Published June 8, 2011
Spacecraft From Above
Photograph courtesy Thomas Pedersen, Copenhagen Suborbitals
Seen from above, the spacecraft Tycho Brahe is settled onto the HEAT-1X rocket engine.
Private rocket launches by companies such as Masten Space Systems and Armadillo Aerospace—which both recently received part of a U.S. $475,000 grant from NASA—take place fairly frequently, spaceflight consultant Lurio said. "We have SpaceX, they're launching all the time. ... [Launches] are getting to be pretty common."
However, the launch of Tycho Brahe will be Denmark's biggest. If future spaceflights take place with a human, as Copenhagen Suborbitals hopes, Denmark will be the fourth country to send someone to space—and the first to do it without any public funding.
(See a 2010 picture of SpaceX's launch vehicle Falcon 9.)
Published June 8, 2011
Rarin' to Go
Photograph courtesy Copenhagen Suborbitals
The HEAT-1X booster shoots a jet of flame during a test.
HEAT-1X burns for 60 seconds and generates almost 9,000 pounds (4,100 kilograms) of thrust. In the vent of a suborbital launch, the booster would be jettisoned before Tycho Brahe spacecraft reaches zero gravity.
The pilot would then experience about a minute and a half of zero-G before the spacecraft begins to fall back to Earth. Finally, a drogue parachute—used to stabilize a fast-moving object—and three main parachutes would ease the astronaut down to a water landing, where he or she would be recovered by boat.
On the online forum SomethingAwful.com, a member of the Copenhagen Suborbitals team described the recovery process.
The capsule "is supposed to float, and remain watertight with the pilot resting on his back. In a rough sea it would no doubt be unpleasant to be kicked around in a bucket like that while waiting for recovery, but we will try to launch on a day with nice weather."
(Also see "NASA Launches Ares I-X Rocket.")
Published June 8, 2011
Reaching for the Stars
Photograph courtesy Erik Sellgren, Copenhagen Suborbitals
Peter Madsen (left) and Kristian von Bengtson stand next to the spacecraft they developed. The Copenhagen Suborbital founders have said that their motivation for building a spacecraft was partly personal.
Madsen told the Danish newspaper B.T. he was tired of waiting for NASA to create something that would send him to space—so he decided to build his own.
But why?
"Did you ever read Tintin?" the pair said on SomethingAwful.com. "Why did Tintin and his buddies go on any of their adventures?"
(Read about the future of spaceflight.)
Published June 8, 2011
Mission Impossible?
Photograph courtesy Copenhagen Suborbitals
Kristian von Bengston works on the seating system for the spacecraft as the crash-test dummy is hoisted into place.
Space is extremely limited inside Tycho Brahe, though the developers say a larger version may be in the works if all goes well.
Either way, "you've got to really want to go" into space, said spaceflight consultant Lurio. "It's not a way I would prefer to go up. ... There's a little less room in there than a coffin," he joked.
If future test flights go well, Copenhagen Suborbitals wants to move fast—the team hopes to have a manned flight by 2013.
(See a National Geographic magazine photo gallery of humans in space.)
Published June 8, 2011