Watch USC Students Make History For Amateur Rocket Launch 89 Miles Above Earth

A group of USC Viterbi School of Engineering students have broken the international altitude record for a rocket, reaching further into space than any non-governmental and non-commercial group have ever flown before. The previous record of 380,000 feet stood for 20 years, before falling to the student-run group USC Rocket Propulsion Lab (USCRPL) by 90,000 feet.

When one thinks of a rocket capable of making it into outer space, they most likely think about something like SpaceX’s Starship, which recently smiled for the cameras before its sixth test flight. Or perhaps one like the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, which launched on a top secret Space Force mission this summer. However, the people behind those more advanced rockets all got their start on much smaller projects, such as Aftershock II.

“This achievement represents several engineering firsts,” explained Ryan Kraemer, executive engineer of USCRPL and an undergraduate student majoring in mechanical engineering. “Aftershock II is distinguished by the most powerful solid-propellant motor ever fired by students and the most powerful composite case motor made by amateurs.”

To put the difference in size of the Aftershock II rocket and something along the lines of SpaceX’s Starship into perspective, Aftershock II’s weight amounted to 330 pounds, at a height of 13-feet and 8-inches in diameter. SpaceX’s Starship with a Super Heavy rocket, on the other hand, has a payload capacity of 150 tons, stands 397-feet tall, and has a diameter of 29.5-feet.

This is not the first record for the USCRPL group. In 2019 the group launched the Traveler IV rocket, becoming the first to pass the Karman line, or the boundary separating Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. Since then, the group has been striving to beat their own record, and have now set the altitude record for amateur rocketry worldwide.

“To exceed the standard we set for ourselves with Traveler IV, we had to solve many technical and operational challenges,” Kraemer explained. “Thermal protection at hypersonic speeds is a major challenge at the industry level, and the protective paint system that we developed performed perfectly, enabling the rocket to return largely intact. We also made an important upgrade to the fins, replacing the bare carbon edge of previous iterations with titanium leading edges. The titanium not only prevented fraying but actually turned blue from the intense heat during flight through anodization, which really demonstrates the extreme conditions our rocket successfully endured.”

The record breaking launch actually took place on October 20, 2024 in the Black Rock Desert rocket launch area in Nevada. The student white paper verifying the data was later posted on November 14, 2024.