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Tom Jackson,in Cambridgeand Joanna Taylor
TOM JACKSON/BBC
Elisabeth Rakozy and Ben Sutcliffe are co-presidents of the Cambridge University Space Flight Society
A group of students hoping to become the first in Europe to launch a rocket into space said they were inspired by Nasa's Artemis II flight around the moon.
Rakozy said the 100-strong society hoped to pass the Kármán line, 100km (62 miles) above earth – which is known as the "boundary of space" – within the next two years.
The university society was established in 2006, mainly by engineering students, with the 100km goal already in mind.
It had since built several rockets and engines, including Griffin I which students said would be capable of reaching an altitude of 150km (93 miles) if launched successfully.
It had previously launched rockets and high altitude balloons from locations in Cambridge and the United States, where it was supported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
CUSFS
The society launched an unmanned rocket from the Mojave Desert in California
The mission was slowed by the pandemic, but had since picked up renewed momentum, the society said.
The society had made "progress" in the past few months with logistics, insurance and licensing and planned to launch a rocket in Scotland, Rakozy, also 22, added.
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Students at Cambridge University hope to become the first in Europe to reach space with one of their rockets
She said she would be watching from the sidelines when the society achieved its aims as she had accepted a job with US aerospace manufacturing company Relativity Space, which would begin after her graduation.
Watching each test flight was an "amazing", but nerve-wracking, feeling, Sutcliffe said.
"It's sort of like seeing your baby being launched off into the sky and praying that all of your engineering design was done properly," he said.
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