Pop-bottle rocket headed into orbit?

British Columbia's Ken Schellenberg -- who already holds the record for highest pop bottle rocket launch -- is working on a pop bottle rocket that will use compressed air to launch itself into orbit.
Several years ago, one of his "toy" rockets - actually a Kevlar-reinforced, experimental, single-stage missile pressurized with compressed nitrogen and packing high-tech instruments - flew to just under 379 metres.

Based on that research, Schellenberg is now convinced that it will be possible to put a bottle rocket into orbit. In preparation, he's working on sending a modified two-stage rocket - reinforced with ultra-strong carbon-fibre and fuelled by liquid CO2 - up about five kilometres.

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Cory Doctorow

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