Oct 18, 2024 09:29 PM
These guys are great!
Gruyere Space Program is a bunch of engineering students in Switzerland who have designed and built not only a very throttleable bipropellant liquid-fueled rocket engine, but also a small VTOL hopper complete with thrust vector control. The thing appears to be very professionally constructed. They say that they spent 250,000 CHF (Swiss Francs) on it ($289,000 US) (Yes, they have sponsors.)
And here they are flying it on its first test flight, which reached 105 meters altitude, moved 30m to the side, then returned to an impressively well controlled landing back on their pad.
https://x.com/GruyereSpace/status/1846951124705697873
This thing is already more advanced than anything else in Europe, including Arianespace! I guess these students figured that if the usual European suspects weren't going to do anything about matching SpaceX-style reusable rockets, they would just have to do it themselves! I love it! Europe needs a lot more of this kind of spirit!
(Yes, that's cheese attached to the landing leg...)
https://gruyerespaceprogram.ch/
Dr Z likes it
https://x.com/Dr_ThomasZ/status/1846994988069953703
They hope to make a New Space company out of it...
http://pave.space/
Gruyere Space Program is a bunch of engineering students in Switzerland who have designed and built not only a very throttleable bipropellant liquid-fueled rocket engine, but also a small VTOL hopper complete with thrust vector control. The thing appears to be very professionally constructed. They say that they spent 250,000 CHF (Swiss Francs) on it ($289,000 US) (Yes, they have sponsors.)
And here they are flying it on its first test flight, which reached 105 meters altitude, moved 30m to the side, then returned to an impressively well controlled landing back on their pad.
https://x.com/GruyereSpace/status/1846951124705697873
This thing is already more advanced than anything else in Europe, including Arianespace! I guess these students figured that if the usual European suspects weren't going to do anything about matching SpaceX-style reusable rockets, they would just have to do it themselves! I love it! Europe needs a lot more of this kind of spirit!
(Yes, that's cheese attached to the landing leg...)
https://gruyerespaceprogram.ch/
Dr Z likes it
https://x.com/Dr_ThomasZ/status/1846994988069953703
They hope to make a New Space company out of it...
http://pave.space/