Derek Deville may not be a professional rocketeer, but his amateur rocket, Qu8ke, is no joke. On September 30, Deville launched Qu8ke from Nevada’s Black Rock Desert and the 14-foot, 320-pound rocket exceeded expectations, reaching a height of 121,000 feet in just 92 seconds!
Deville and his team hope to win the Carmack Prize – a $10,000 award for any amateur rocketeer who builds a craft that can soar 100,000 feet. Though the rocket blasted high enough to record the black vastness of space and the curvature of the planet, a parachute helped Qu8ke drift peacefully back to Earth and land just 3 miles from the launch site.
Check out the cool video below to see Qu8ke launch into the earth’s stratosphere (the real fun begins at 2:59 and 5:20).
Source: Gawker
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