r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/InsaneMocktail • Sep 08 '26

Video University of Waterloo Students Launch Rocket Breaking World Record

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u/DiggWuzBetter Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26

Article about the launch and record: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/engineering/waterloos-student-rocketry-team-breaks-world-record

It’s a record for greatest altitude achieved by an amateur liquid bi-propellant rocket. The rocket achieved an altitude of 19.35 km (63,497 feet), which honestly is less than I would have guessed from this video. That’s roughly 2.2x the height of Everest (8.85 km above sea level), and to me it’s surprising that there’s a mountain nearly half this height, it just seems so insanely high in this video.

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u/WPintheshower Sep 08 '26

Adding Mount Everest to things that "sound like too much work", after seeing just how high this rocket went.

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u/Aggravating-Sir8185 Sep 08 '26

Why not launch the rocket from the top of mount everest? You would get like at least a couple more feet in altitude.

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u/ThrowawayPersonAMA Sep 09 '26

Sherpas are immortal and now you want to give them modern weapons?!

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Sep 09 '26

With this technology they would probably just go live on Mars, no space suits needed

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u/IkariYun Sep 09 '26

They already live and work in a low-oxygen habitat

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u/ProfessorPacu Sep 10 '26

Works for the British. See: Gurkha