Breaking Records: SA Rocket Successfully Launches 17.9km into the Air
- A South African hybrid rocket recently broke African records after it successfully launched 18km into the sky
- The rocket was designed developed by a hardworking team at the University of KwaZulu-Natal
- Minister for Higher Education, Science and Innovation Blade Ndzimande has said that this is a historic moment for the country
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South Africa's astronautics skils is slowly but surely reaching new heights - literally. A hybrid rocket built by a team of engineers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal recently travelled nearly 18km in the sky successfully breaking African rocket records for distance travelled.
The previous record for the rocket which is called The Phoenix-1B Mark IIr sounding rocket was set at 10.3km making the latest record even more amazing - and this is something that the South African minister for higher education, science and innovation noted.
Speaking about the record-breaking achievement, Ndzimande said that it was a moment that will go down in history for the country. He also said that the achievement was a game-changer for South African space science.
Impressed South Africans had this to say about the country's latest astronautical achievement:
@Nhamo48248468 asked:
"Is this a SA space program? Which is better than nothing... hope it gets enough funding"
@Varaschaka asked:
"This is impressive, we are also Launching rockets into the sky too?"
@AndrewParsonson said:
"It's really exciting to see the development of applied rocket technology in my birth country!"
@Ziyaggy said:
"These are possibly the early stages of one"
Source: Twitter
Briefly.co.za previously reported that Elon Musk's Space X Starship Rocket recently exploded again after it was launched to test whether or not it is ready for a manned trip all the way to Mars - and after the results that were seen on Wednesday this week, it is clearly not.
While the prototype spacecraft, which is called SN10, was able to successfully complete its test route after it was launched at the Space X headquarters in Texas on Wednesday this week, several minutes after it came back down it burst into flames.
The Space X crew shared a link to a live clip of the SN10 launching into the sky but had stopped recording by the time the spacecraft exploded. It was however recorded by a number of other cameras.
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Source: Briefly News
