Watch a GoPro go to Space

GoPro has officially gone to space. I highly doubt that we’ll ever see a GoPro do anything cooler than launch off on a rocket into space.

About the Launch

On November 6th, 2015 UP Aerospace Inc. launched the 20-foot (6 meters) tall SL-10 rocket into near-space. UP Aerospace, a private spaceflight company founded in 2004, hasn’t quite achieved the level of fame that SpaceX has, but a few more intelligently strategized stunts like this one may well put it on the public map. Once the rocket launches, it begins a process called “spin-stabilization”, which is a method of satellite stabilization and attitude control. Spin stabilization is achieved by spinning the exterior of the spacecraft on its axis at a fixed rate.

At about a minute and a half, the rocket releases the 5kg re-entry capsule, Maraia, which re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere at about two and a half minutes, and then gracefully touches down at the US Army White Sands Missile Range to finish. This launch was a trial for Maraia, to see how well it would handle the re-entry process, and it passed with flying colors.

Maraia is described by NASA as an “inexpensive, autonomous International Space Station-based vehicle to provide an on-demand return of small scientific and engineering payloads.” The rocket shoots to just over 120 kilometers and reaching over Mach 5 (about a max of 6115km/hr). Try as you might, I don’t think you’ll ever get a GoPro footage going anywhere quite that fast.