A Kiwi-built amateur rocket is believed to have set a record as not just the country’s first but one of the fastest launched into space — all with home brewed beer and gin onboard.
Meraki II, a 4-metre long rocket, launched near Arthur’s Pass on April 19, reaching a peak altitude of 121.6km.
The two-stage rocket travelled at mind-boggling speeds of up to Mach 5.6, or around 1.9 kilometres a second — fast enough to cover the distance between Cape Reinga and Bluff in just over 12 minutes.
Lead engineer Ethan Kosoof had been working on the project for five years and told 1News the achievement was “pretty amazing”.
“For a bunch of New Zealanders to do it on their own dime, it’s pretty cool.”
Meraki II, a 4-metre long rocket, launched near Arthur’s Pass on April 19. (Source: Supplied)
A dream years in the making
The journey began when a model rocket kit, given to Kosoof on his eighth birthday, ignited his passion for rocketry.
“That was basically it,” he said.
“I found the NZ Rocketry Association (NZRA) about six months later, and I’ve been there ever since.”
The not-for-profit organisation provided the project with equipment, including the launch gantry, the firing system and safety gear.
Kosoof was supported in his mission by partners Chris North, Martin Van Tiel, and Kelvin McVinnie.
Mount White Station, one of the country’s largest high country stations, served as headquarters for the crew.
Kosoof said he was thankful to the station owner Lukas Travnicek and staff for their support with the project, adding it was “probably the only place” in the country it could be done.
“There’s an exclusion zone required on the ground, and because that could all be squeezed into one single property owned by one person, it made that part quite straightforward.”
While the team were exempt from requiring approval from the Government to conduct the launch, they still had to clear it with aviation regulators.
“It took around six months worth of review with the Civil Aviation Authority and Airways NZ to develop what is effectively what is a restricted area.”
NZRA’s longstanding relationships with these regulators smoothed the process, he added.
At the end of the design process, some fine tuning of the rocket revealed more mass was needed to ensure stability throughout the flight.
Rather than using traditional ballast, however, the team opted for a more Kiwi approach.
Kosoof said: “We figured some home-brew gin and beer, what better ballast could we have?”
The alcohol was sealed in a vacuum capable container to withstand the conditions in space.
Liftoff
Meraki II blasted off at 7.03am on April 19, after a flight from Christchurch to Brisbane had passed overhead.
Kosoof said he was “horrifically” anxious before the launch, which was the culmination of five years of development.
“I could barely stand to be honest, my partner was basically holding me up.”
Two minutes into its flight, the rocket reached the Kármán line, the internationally-recognised border for space at 100km. A minute later, it reached it’s peak altitude of 121.6km.
The rocket returned to Earth after 13 minutes and was recovered a few kilometres northwest from the launch site.
“We had two experienced hikers on our crew, Jack Davies and Mark McVinnie, that did an 11km round trip up the Pūkio Stream, through dense bush to recover it about five hours after launch,” Kosoof said.
Asked what was next following the successful launch, Kosoof said the crew was having a bit of a rest at the moment.
“Once that passes, we’ll be keen to get back into it and maybe a bit higher, or a bit faster, we’ll see.”
He hoped the success of Meraki II would inspire the next generation of amateur rocketeers.
“There’s not many kinds of hobbies where kids can actually get hands on and build something. To come down to what is effectively a paddock in Taupiri, where we usually launch, and be able to build and launch things that go thousands of feet at supersonic speeds, there’s no better way to learn skills.
