Two engineers and 500 online supporters are shaking up space travel

In a disused Copenhagen shipyard, two aerospace engineers are running an open-source rocket programme. Their dream? To go into space. Copenhagen Suborbitals was founded in 2008 by Kristian von Bengtson, now 37, and Peter Madsen, 41. In June 2011, they launched Tycho Brahe (named after the Danish astronomer), a nine-metre-long rocket propelled by seven tonnes of thrust, from a launcher, Heat1X, in the Baltic. It had to be shut down after two minutes when the rocket began to over-arc and rapidly dropped from 30km to 2.8km.

Copenhagen Suborbitals is funded by donations, including 500 members who give $20 (£12) a month via PayPal. All the plans are shared online and design challenges are crowdsourced. Up to 30 volunteers help build the rockets from cheap components. "We use simple materials because we don't need to optimise the rocket the way the pro guys do," says von Bengtson. "As long as it gets us into space, it's fine."

They have five launches planned this year, including their first manned flight. It's one giant leap for crowdkind…

Please Check Link : http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/04/start/committee-built-rocket
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