A couple of years ago, it was reported that a Danish start-up company was planning to launch a person into space in a cramped capsule. It all seemed rather fanciful, but Copenhagen Suborbitals is really going to do it this weekend:
Over the last year-and-a-half they have led a team of volunteers to create the HEAT1X rocket and the micro spacecraft it will launch, called Tycho Brahe-1.
Tycho Brahe-1 will carry one human passenger, in a half-seated position, into space and back down again.
The seat is designed to minimise the gravitational pull on the passenger’s spine.
Whoever is on board will also have to wear a pressure suit, like those worn by fighter pilots, to make sure they don’t pass out.
At the top of the module is a see-through polymer plexiglass dome, giving the astronaut a once-in-a-lifetime view of their journey.
It’s planned that the spacecraft will travel in an arc, jettisoning the rocket about halfway up and eventually peaking more than 100km above the Earth before coming down.
After it re-enters the atmosphere, parachutes will be deployed to slow it before it hits the water.
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