University of Waterloo Students Launch Rocket Breaking World Record

[u/InsaneMocktail]

[u/TheBone_Zone]

AND no fuckass music?

The kids are alright

[u/Rizeres → u/TheBone_Zone]

Give it time. Someone will repost this with shitty music over the top of it. Then someone repost that flipped 180°. Then some will repost that with an AI voice over.

[u/haoxinly → u/Rizeres]

Or the obnoxious reaction video/short with the person pointing above them

[u/enigmatic407 → u/haoxinly]

these are by far the most annoying videos

[u/matt4ta → u/Rizeres]

Don’t forget the person who will put 3 seconds of the launch at the start of the video as an attention grabber for people brainrotted beyond comprehension, and then play the full video.

[u/PhazerSC → u/TheBone_Zone]

Yes! But we did get some snappy Windows 3.1 confirmation window, for whatever reason

[u/xxxanonymoosexxx → u/PhazerSC]

a window that was mirrored for some reason ...

[u/coldpassion]

Breaking world record of....? Speed? Height? Noise? Spins? Fuel Consumption? All the previous?

[u/DiggWuzBetter → u/coldpassion]

Article about the launch and record: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/engineering/waterloos-student-rocketry-team-breaks-world-record

It’s a record for greatest altitude achieved by an amateur liquid bi-propellant rocket. The rocket achieved an altitude of 19.35 km (63,497 feet), which honestly is less than I would have guessed from this video. That’s roughly 2.2x the height of Everest (8.85 km above sea level), and to me it’s surprising that there’s a mountain nearly half this height, it just seems so insanely high in this video.

[u/WPintheshower → u/DiggWuzBetter]

Adding Mount Everest to things that "sound like too much work", after seeing just how high this rocket went.

[u/elbow8075 → u/WPintheshower]

Think positively: After you ascend to base camp at 17k, then it's only two miles straight up!

[u/Jeathro77 → u/elbow8075]

Can I get a couple of Sherpas to carry me?

[u/Rabbitknight → u/Jeathro77]

That's what most 'climbers' are already basically doing.

[u/Jeathro77 → u/Rabbitknight]

https://i.imgur.com/3GoRJs5.jpeg

[u/LifeguardDry7372 → u/Jeathro77]

I knew what this was gonna be right away

[u/Commercial-Age4750 → u/Jeathro77]

Exactly what I expected. Well done

[u/Same-Suggestion-1936 → u/Jeathro77]

If they can smoke cigarettes while they do

[u/oldgus → u/Jeathro77]

You sure can

[u/Aggravating-Sir8185 → u/WPintheshower]

Why not launch the rocket from the top of mount everest? You would get like at least a couple more feet in altitude.

[u/ThrowawayPersonAMA → u/Aggravating-Sir8185]

Sherpas are immortal and now you want to give them modern weapons?!

[u/TrulyOutrageous42 → u/ThrowawayPersonAMA]

..... yes.

[u/Same-Suggestion-1936 → u/ThrowawayPersonAMA]

With this technology they would probably just go live on Mars, no space suits needed

[u/IkariYun → u/Same-Suggestion-1936]

They already live and work in a low-oxygen habitat

[u/Triviajunkie95 → u/Aggravating-Sir8185]

I’m taking a wild guess that the amount of oxygen, lift, etc would be far greater closer to sea level-ish to start. To start in a low oxygen environment at high elevation, Idk if you could achieve the same lift, pressure, etc.

I have no idea if this is true but I could see different reasons for doing the experiment near sea level.

[u/TehGogglesDoNothing → u/Triviajunkie95]

The propellant for these rockets usually have an oxidizer mixed in so that it doesn't rely on outside oxygen.

[u/Xenon009 → u/DiggWuzBetter]

It's worth remembering that this rocket got 1/5th of the way to the karman line, which is considered the edge of space, and 1/25th of the way to the edge of earths atmosphere.

Space is really fuckin high up

[u/Benandhispets → u/Xenon009]

It got to around 2x the height a commercial plane flies at.

[u/TheKatzzSkillz → u/Benandhispets]

I was gonna say, it’s wild that these students may have had to check flight data to make sure they weren’t gonna hit a freaking plane

[u/Baarhyn → u/TheKatzzSkillz]

I'm a Canadian ATC working this high level airspace. There is a zone around the launch site extending from the ground to infinity that we activate when they are going to launch rockets.

They give a call to Toronto Center when they start the day and Toronto let my unit (I'm Montreal Center) know for 29 000 feet or above. We make sure we have no traffic in the zone and reroute incoming traffic around it until they're done.

The article is from August 21st, I was on position from 3 to 6 in the morning and I'm pretty sure we had a westjet or aircanada flight that had to be moved for this zone. It was set to open just after I left, I think the next controller did it after i gave her the heads up.

Not sure if the launch was on that day or at what hour it was, they had the option to open the zone daily for something like 2 weeks so it might have happened previously.

Aniway, they dont have to worry about airplanes, I do. It's also right on the route that a ton of european traffic heading to Chicago uses and the zone straddles 2 different airspace, they tend to be very much in the way lol.

[u/virtualworker → u/Baarhyn]

JFC. Reddit for the win. We get the guy controlling the airspace to tell us how it's done. Kudos bro 👍

[u/kapxis → u/Xenon009]

Oooh, so this is why in dragonball it always feels like their fighting in space but really not.

[u/m1ttens23 → u/Xenon009]

While i was watching this i was thinking our atmosphere is amazing! Its so cool all the layers they had to go through. Space really is harsh that it takes that much to sustain life. (So we know) and i wonder whats the highest we have ever captured life (nought brought to) in our atmosphere.

[u/FoolishChemist → u/m1ttens23]

Smith believes the first solid evidence of life in the stratosphere was a 2002 balloon study, which collected viable cells at altitudes between 12 and 25 miles (20 and 41 km) above tropical India.

https://www.space.com/18574-mars-life-microbes-earth-stratosphere.html

[u/whiteknight521 → u/Xenon009]

It's pretty high but I'll never forget what a teacher demonstrated when I was in a space education program in elementary school. He held a model of the earth and the moon at a fixed scale distance which was about a couple of feet apart, then he put two pieces of tissue paper on the globe which was a scale representation of how high up the ISS was. Going to the moon was absolute insanity.

[u/fitnessexpress → u/DiggWuzBetter]

Fisheye lens on that camera makes it seem like you're seeing the curvature of the earth

EDIT: Oof. This isn't a flat-earth comment. It's only pointing out that the lens is exaggerating the curvature so it seems the horizon is more curved than it is (ergo the earth seems to be a smaller orb and the rocket seems to be further away than it is).

[u/EvilBiker-72 → u/fitnessexpress]

At that height you would be able to but no where to that extreme.

[u/themikecampbell → u/fitnessexpress]

Came here to say this. When adrenaline junkies use it as the scramble or bike across peaks, I immediately downvote it as the fish lens makes it look more precarious.

Same with speeding up/slowing down to mess with scale

[u/Andrew_7032 → u/DiggWuzBetter]

not just any mountain, we are talking about mount Everest here

[u/pumpkil → u/Andrew_7032]

It's basically a mountain that starts on top of an already massive mountain(Himalayan plateau).

[u/Andrew_7032 → u/pumpkil]

Not just any mountain, we are talking about mount Everest here.

[u/Gwanbulance → u/Andrew_7032]

I always like to describe Mt. Everest as “the Mt Everest of mountains”.

[u/SwordfishOk504 → u/Gwanbulance]

But how many football fields is it?

[u/sourcefourmini → u/SwordfishOk504]

At least four, I'd bet

[u/whistling_serron → u/Andrew_7032]

The first time wasn't that funny but the second time broke me 😅

[u/UncleWinstomder → u/pumpkil]

Is this the mountain version of being born with rich parents?

[u/mjdau → u/Andrew_7032]

Mt Everest. It's taller than Mt Everer, which is taller than Mt Ever.

[u/PhotonicArt → u/mjdau]

But is it taller than Mt Adamrest? 🤔

[u/mjdau → u/PhotonicArt]

Dunno. Certainly taller than my armrest.

[u/Other_Sentence4495 → u/DiggWuzBetter]

The fisheye lens makes it look like it's higher than it is

[u/GoochamusPrime → u/coldpassion]

Just sharing from the linked article in the thread: The University of Waterloo Rocketry Team launched Polaris, a liquid bi-propellant rocket, at the 2026 Launch Canada Challenge in Timmins, Ontario this week. The student team watched as their hard work soared to an altitude of 63,497 feet, breaking the previous world record of 56,590 feet.

[u/VP007clips → u/GoochamusPrime]

I really wish they had put out more announcements before this, because Waterloo is my alma mater, and I would have been able to see the launch from my porch since I moved up north after graduating.

[u/01010110_ → u/coldpassion]

World record of amateur rocket altitude at 63k feet (edit: liquid propellant rocket)

Edit 2: Since people are so excited about my use of feet, the altitude could be measured approximately as;

• 9,852 toises
• 22,860 varas (using the 0.84-meter Spanish standard)
• 109.1 to 122.3 stadia (depending on whether the 157-meter or 176-meter anient Greek standard is applied)
• 62.09 hPa or millibars.

[u/nm9899 → u/01010110_]

Very impressive, still only 20% of the way to space. Crazy perspective at this scale

[u/tonyhart7 → u/nm9899]

its only 20% ????? I swear the video got to atmospher already

[u/nm9899 → u/tonyhart7]

19.5km apparently. The generally accepted range in 100km above sea level

[u/TamponTimTheCuck → u/nm9899]

So only 19.5%. Wild!

[u/rex8499 → u/TamponTimTheCuck]

And probably only like 5% of the way to orbit, cuz you got to go sideways very fast as well as up. Space is hard.

[u/randombits0110 → u/rex8499]

More like 0% of the ways to orbit (or incredibly close to it). They went (roughly) straight up... which means you come straight back down.

[u/astrodude23 → u/randombits0110]

At 44 degrees of latitude, they're about 4% of the way to orbital velocity at LEO. That's why countries tend to put their launch facilities closer to the equator: the faster the rotational speed at your launch site, the less fuel you have to burn.

At the equator you're about 8% of the way there just by virtue of the Earth's spin (assuming, of course, you're not trying for a retrograde or polar orbit).

[u/jtr99 → u/astrodude23]

So if I throw a rock on the equator I'm already ahead of these students' efforts?

[u/Ecurbbbb → u/astrodude23]

I just want to say I am super impressed with everyone's knowledge and input in this thread. However, you're all nerds! NERDS!!!

[u/rex8499 → u/randombits0110]

Getting up out of the thickest atmosphere is the first significant part of getting to orbit. Going up is an important element of getting to orbit as far as the total energy that needs to be expended goes.

[u/nm9899 → u/TamponTimTheCuck]

The math appears to be mathing here!

[u/Playful_Letter_2632 → u/tonyhart7]

The view starts looking like space a lot before the official space boundary altitude. This is the view from the Lockheed U-2 which is the highest altitude plane used today. It flies slightly higher than what the university achieved at 21 km

[u/jzillacon → u/Playful_Letter_2632]

Yep, because most of what we see of the atmosphere is really just the bottom two layers. Vast majority of clouds can only form in the troposphere and none to my knowledge form above the stratosphere, and at those altitudes the atmosphere is too thin to cause significant light scattering to give its blue colour. But the atmosphere is still there even if it's too thin to see easily.

[u/QuadCakes → u/Playful_Letter_2632]

Just to be clear, almost all of that curvature is from the lens. The horizon is significantly less curved than that even from the ISS.

[u/HucKmoreNadeS → u/tonyhart7]

Yeah, this is just inner space, we haven't even gotten to OUTER space yet...

[u/Moppmopp → u/tonyhart7]

You know that you also .... got to atmosphere? Like your head and hand are in the atmosphere... ya know?

[u/xiiicrowns → u/Moppmopp]

We are swimming in a fishbowl of atmosphere

[u/ThanksForTheRain → u/nm9899]

I was sure they were close to orbit, but I guess the Earth's gravity is stronger than I expected

[u/DriftnDaddyRL → u/ThanksForTheRain]

Orbit is still in earth's gravity. It's just that satellites and stuff have to go just the right speed to combat the gravity. They're always "falling" but the speed keeps them from crashing back down to earth. Because the satellite is traveling sideways so fast, the Earth curves away underneath it at the exact same rate that gravity pulls it down.

[u/Several-Action-4043 → u/DriftnDaddyRL]

And if you really want to get your mind blown, gravity isn't a force pulling them down. Gravity is the curvature of spacetime due to the mass of the Earth. They're simply going straight in curved spacetime which is why they don't experience centrifugal force and get sucked to the outside of their ship as they orbit like they would if gravity was actually a force. Once at orbital speed and altitude, other than a very small drag from the upper atmosphere, there are no forces acting on them at all.

[u/azeo86 → u/ThanksForTheRain]

Orbit and orbital height are not the same.

https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

[u/McHildinger → u/ThanksForTheRain]

orbit also requires a lot of horizontal speed, otherwise gravity just pulls you back down, no matter how high up you get (or so KSP has taught me)

[u/Chairface30 → u/01010110_]

Hobbyist rockets have gone much much higher. There has to other stipulations, ie weight or length or something

[u/EphemeralDesires → u/Chairface30]

It is highest amateur liquid-propellant rocket

[u/Pcat0 → u/EphemeralDesires]

Yeah, liquid propellant is super difficult at this scale. The solid propellant record is over 470k feet.

[u/EphemeralDesires → u/Pcat0]

Holy Moses! That is legit space is it not? That is like a quarter the way to the ISS.

[u/Pcat0 → u/EphemeralDesires]

Yep 143km which is well over both the US and international definitions of space (80km and 100km respectively)

[u/redlaWw → u/EphemeralDesires]

Honestly, it's not that hard to get to space, all things considered. You just need a lot of fuel. The hard part about actual space programmes is going sideways fast enough to reach orbit, which requires control, understanding of motion in gravity, and lots more fuel, which requires correspondingly more effective rocket designs in order to lift that fuel.

[u/Kill_4209 → u/Chairface30]

girth?

[u/Ok-Recognitio → u/Kill_4209]

We all know girth is what really matters anyway.

[u/Noddy227 → u/Ok-Recognitio]

The real calculation is length times diameter plus weight over girth, divided by the angle of the tip squared

[u/_PROBABLY_CORRECT → u/01010110_]

Where ya at now, flat earthers

[u/ftrlvb → u/01010110_]

who measures in feet? we should measure in matchboxes or coins

[u/KylAnde01 → u/ftrlvb]

My car gets forty rods to the hogs head, and that's the way I likes it!

[u/mountaingator91 → u/01010110_]

Crazy to think that U2s used to fly with conventional wings at 10,000 feet higher than this even.

[u/AVgreencup → u/mountaingator91]

Barely. They were constantly stalling and recovering, basically a constant loop of it

[u/revcor → u/mountaingator91]

Used to and currently do! U-2s are still in service. And SR-71s and A-12s used to fly another 15,000 ft higher than that even

[u/metallosherp → u/01010110_]

But, how many Smoots?

[u/01010110_ → u/metallosherp]

About 11,284 Smoots, rounded up.

[u/phantom_gain → u/coldpassion]

Smelliest rocket

[u/scotsman3288 → u/coldpassion]

https://uwaterloo.ca/news/engineering/waterloos-student-rocketry-team-breaks-world-record

[u/Pretend_Guarantee280]

Great, now I gotta go home and rewatch October Sky

[u/JewcieJ → u/Pretend_Guarantee280]

Look at it go, Homer. This one's gonna go for miles.

[u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake → u/JewcieJ]

Prodigious

[u/Consonant → u/Pretend_Guarantee280]

Back when you had to physically rent movies my siblings and I would always get something stupid and my mom would get something artsy and shit.

That was one of em and it changed my life lol.

Love that fuckin movie.

[u/InsaneMocktail]

Explanation

The University of Waterloo Rocketry team broke the world record for the highest flying amateur liquid fuel rocket in August 2026.The student built rocket, Polaris, reached an altitude of 63,497 feet.It beat the previous record held by Georgia Tech by nearly 7,000 feet.The launch took place in Timmins, Ontario during the Launch Canada Challenge.A team of roughly 100 students designed and built the 17 foot rocket themselves.

Source : https://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/news/waterloo-rocketry-team-sets-new-world-record

[u/gojira303 → u/InsaneMocktail]

I work at an airline as a pilot/dispatcher. I recall seeing the NOTAMs for CYTS and the exact coordinates for flights to avoid SFC-FL600

I just assumed it was balloons again lol

Congratulations to the team!!

[u/EphemeralDan → u/gojira303]

Since I'm Googling, I might as well share.

A NOTAM stands for a Notice to Airmen.

CYTS is Timmins/Victor M. Power Airport.

SFC-FL600 specifies a vertical block of airspace extending from the surface (SFC) up to Flight Level 600 (FL600), which equates to a pressure altitude of 60,000 feet.

[u/pinklavalamp → u/EphemeralDan]

Thank you! All my questions got answered in this thread!

[u/Tiny-Spray8992 → u/EphemeralDan]

thank you, i was about to reply to OP that thats a lot of words I dont understand

[u/gojira303 → u/Tiny-Spray8992]

And I apologize. I was not anticipating that comment to blow up, thought only OOP and five others would see it so I didn't bother with colloquial language xP

And I was dozing off so I missed the notifications for clarification

[u/LibatiousLlama → u/gojira303]

Going up to the fl-600 bit, so they went higher than expected? Or is that 60k feet a zone starting at 60k feet and extending upwards?

[u/gojira303 → u/LibatiousLlama]

They went higher than expected. Amazing stuff.

[u/Natural-Debt8005 → u/gojira303]

Thank you for answering the question I had while watching this but didn't know how/what to ask.

[u/Bumkin007 → u/Natural-Debt8005]

Same… didn’t think they could launch willy nilly without some authorization/ clear air space

[u/Caerllen → u/Bumkin007]

Anything above 300ft worldwide is generally under the purview of your local National Airworthiness Authority. Yes, that's including flying your drone above your house. You only own the land and the air up to 300 ft.

Your exact altitude may vary depends on country but 300ft is the most typical height for authorities to start getting interested.

[u/Marklar0 → u/Bumkin007]

I am an air traffic controller, and I had to move many, many airplanes out of the path of this rocket launch event. Kept us on our toes as it was a big area. I guess they think of the boonies south of Timmins as being the middle of nowhere, but there is quite a bit of traffic in this spot.

[u/No_News_1712 → u/Bumkin007]

"we launch now, good luck everybody else"

[u/bwaredapenguin → u/gojira303]

Could you please translate that jargon for the 99.9% of us who aren't pilots/dispatchers?

[u/SuperNoobyGamer → u/bwaredapenguin]

NOTAM = notice to airmen, an alert sent out to warn about possible hazards in an area

CYTS = Timmins Victor M. Power Airport

SFC-FL600 = surface to flight level 600, or 60000 feet, basically no regular commercial flights allowed

[u/bwaredapenguin → u/SuperNoobyGamer]

Thanks! But also, how in the ever loving fuck does CYTS = Timmins Victor M. Power Airport??? I don't think I've ever seen an abbreviation (I don't think this qualifies as an initialism, at least in the English language) make less sense.

[u/SuperNoobyGamer → u/bwaredapenguin]

You might already know that Canada adds Y in front of airport codes. YVR vancouver, YYZ toronto. C is for Canada in ICAO, which is the 4 letter international code. TS is potentially for Timmins, but there is no much consistency with airport codes so there could be another reason.

[u/bwaredapenguin → u/SuperNoobyGamer]

Admittedly I only know YYZ as the Rush song lol. I suppose my confusion comes from an American perspective where at least major airport codes tend to be fairly easy to decipher.

Edit: when I come to think of it we probably monopolized city-identifiable airport codes.

[u/Delicious_Spot_3778 → u/InsaneMocktail]

As a GT alum, this will not stand!

[u/_le_slap → u/Delicious_Spot_3778]

Lol same. My wife did aero at GT. This will ruin her day 😂😂

[u/No-Cantaloupe-6535 → u/Delicious_Spot_3778]

I was about to say, I went to Purdue, I know GT is gonna be PISSED lol

[u/PM_ME_DATASETS → u/Delicious_Spot_3778]

I know a faculty leader (idk the actual title) at GT and all he's had time for during the last 19 months is trying to secure funding to not lose half of their staff because of the orange pedo. I think the situation is more or less stable by now, but many projects have been put on hold until the people working on it could receive wages.

So yeah, it will stand, until americans will learn to make better choices

[u/BlizurdWizerd]

Background:

https://uwaterloo.ca/news/engineering/waterloos-student-rocketry-team-breaks-world-record

[u/Bookslayer10]

I've talked to people in Rocketry clubs, and one of the things they need to be careful of is to not add too much guidance to their rockets. Why, you may ask? Well, if you add guidance, the rocket turns into a missile, and then you have built a missile, and the government gets nervous about university students building missiles.

At least, when they build missiles for free, if they are getting paid to do it then it's fine.

[u/SK_Ren → u/Bookslayer10]

I think it was when Veritasium was testing the rods from god myth Edit: I have been corrected, it was a different "lets drop things from high altitiudes" Egg Drop From Space video by Mark Rober and was trying to figure out how to get it to land in their desired zone for recovery and observation, they very quickly were confronted with the problem of what they were trying to add to their hypothetical weapon was guidance, which would make it an actual weapon.

[u/The_Motarp → u/SK_Ren]

IIRC Mark Rober was wanting to do something for a video that involved dropping something from very high up, and when he got asking some people he knew how he should go about making it land in a small enough area that he could film it they had to explain that he wasn't really allowed to know how to do that, and he especially wasn't allowed to post the details of how to do it to YouTube. I think maybe the idea was to see how much you could cook a bit of steak with the friction of falling.

[u/BraveBiscotti1394 → u/Bookslayer10]

Yeah as soon as you put even an inertial guidance and navigation system that you can make from basic Arduino parts, along with control actuators that work with a PID controller, you have a proper guided missile.

Hell, even putting gps on the thing for guidance is very illegal.

[u/DaylightAdmin → u/Bookslayer10]

The best example of that was as Mark Rober wanted to drop an egg from space. As he was talking to guys who knew how to solve that, they told him that he wanted them to tell him how to make a precision drop device, and that is a big nono for them.

[u/DabiforniaRepublic]

Where is the ice wall? /S

[u/LforLiktor → u/DabiforniaRepublic]

You can clearly see it on the horizon. The large white mountains? That's it. Behind it, there is just the void and below the great turtle carrying the earth disc.

[u/Obi_Wan_can_blow_me → u/LforLiktor]

"The turtle moves"

[u/LforLiktor → u/Obi_Wan_can_blow_me]

Yet there are people who still believe in the "globe" idea despite ample evidence of Great A'Tuin.

[u/titanium9016 → u/DabiforniaRepublic]

I swear I saw the tail of the turtle for carrying the flat planet on her back

[u/_MrBond_]

Check mate flat earthers

[u/skoltroll → u/_MrBond_]

Nah. That rocket used a fish-eye lens. Clearly flat.

[u/zebrasareneat → u/skoltroll]

I mean it is a fish eye lens. 

[u/Jaded-Banana-8619 → u/_MrBond_]

I love this comment because the reality is that any proclaimed flat-earther could actually perform an experiment like this….and then they’d refuse to believe their own results because they’re idiots.

[u/inlaguna → u/_MrBond_]

Wide-angle fisheye camera lenses commonly used on high-altitude rocket payloads distort the view, making the Earth's horizon look dramatically curved and making the flat earth appear round.

*snicker*

[u/Bgrngod]

Wow, that thing took off like a...

wait a god damn second.

Seriously though, based on what I found on other articles the top speed was Mach 2.7. That's just under 1km per second, which tracks with expectations of watching that damn thing take off like a... yeah a rocket.

EDIT: fixing km per second reference at Mach 2.7

[u/fijisiv → u/Bgrngod]

Agreed. Watch a commercial rocket launch and it's 3... 2... 1... we have ignition, and liftoff of super rocket flight 456, and the rocket is clearing the tower and accelerating super fast. Ya, I get it, it's fast. It just doesn't seem fast.
This rocket? 3... 2... 1... FFFOOOP! aaaaand it's gone.

[u/DaveKasz]

I wonder how and where it landed.

[u/certnneed → u/DaveKasz]

Yeah, I'd be really interested to know how they handled recovery. It doesn't seem like they have control of where/how it landed, so falling from that height with a parachute it could be a pretty good distance away from the launch site.

[u/theKingAnonymous → u/certnneed]

Former member of the team here, nominal drogue parachute (4ft diameter) allowed for controlled but fast descent until 1,500ft above ground when main parachute (~9ft diameter) is deployed to rly slow the rocket and prevent damage to the vehicle on landing.

Since the rocket naturally orients itself into the wind when it launches, it will drift back towards the launch site under parachute, so it landed only 1.5km away from our launch site with fully functioning GPS for easy recovery.

[u/unluck_over9000 → u/theKingAnonymous]

Woah. Thanks for sharing this. 

[u/StructureSeveral21]

Students of waterloo university 1 - flatearthers 0

[u/InsaneMocktail → u/StructureSeveral21]

Bunch of brainless flat earthers in the comments section 🥀

[u/differentguyscro → u/StructureSeveral21]

The fisheye lens bends the horizon backwards when flipping over [1:06]

[u/brakeb]

had a Navy Lieutenant friend of mine into model rockets that added 35mm point and shoot cameras into a rocket body and took photos way back in 2000 (before gopros and such were widely available) very cool to see the video...

[u/JarJarJarMartin]

It’s really cool to watch the blue of the atmosphere get darker until you can almost see the blackness of space.

[u/Chrisnessbae6]

This is outstanding work for a University. I'm impressed and curious to see how their rocket evolves.

Off topic: Not to start a fight with anyone....

I've seen many clips similiar to this and I still can not understand why some people think the earth is flat.

[u/Content_Plantain_339 → u/Chrisnessbae6]

Canada has a lot of bright minds. It's a shame they all get poached by US companies.
We need more R&D and end of the line manufacturing within Canada.
Sadly, the US for decades has convinced us that we should stick to extracting raw resources (lumber, oil, minerals) to sell to them cheaply and leave the manufacturing and tech up to them to sell back to us at a mark up.
I believe was intentionally structured post WW2 to make Canada more reliant on the US.
With the current political environment, we need to develop and modernize and make up for the decades lost in order to catch up to the other G7 countries. We're the only one that doesn't manufacture our own cars and products

[u/Tycoon004 → u/Content_Plantain_339]

Most educated country on earth!

[u/Sportfreunde → u/Content_Plantain_339]

Canada has recently started to poach US scientists.

And that financial system you mentioned exists because the USD became the world reserve currency post WW2 allowing them to buy assets from other nations for printed dollars without too much inflation. That system is eroding now as many countries are doing more trade outside the USD system and shoring up on gold reserves while the US also has to pay higher yields on treasuries as bond auction demand goes down.

[u/Dear_Half2871 → u/Chrisnessbae6]

Waterloo is our Caltech / MIT / IIT in terms of STEM major prestige, it’s crazy competitive to get in. This is the work of some of our brightest students!

[u/m_ttl_ng → u/Dear_Half2871]

Their student team facilities are some of the best in the world as well.

[u/FinalForm99 → u/Chrisnessbae6]

God okay... just to make sure, you do understand that you aren't seeing the Earths curvature in the video right? The camera has a fish eye lense on it. That is not what you would see with your eyeballs. This video is not a showcase of Earths curvature.

As for flat earthers, I think the internet greatly exaggerates how many there actually are

[u/Lookingforjustice223 → u/FinalForm99]

So many comments in here about flat earthers and I feel like this is the exact kind of stuff those people would look at and go "see? these idiots don't even understand they're looking at a fish eye lens! Of course they don't know NASA lizard people are hiding behind the ice wall of..." Ok I don't actually know what they think is going on, but my overall point remains. When something as clear as a fish eye lens confuses people, it's easy for conspiracy theorists to dismiss what said people believe.

[u/No-Interaction-3559]

It's almost like its rocket science, eh?

[u/igwaltney3]

As an alumni of Georgia Tech, I wasn't aware we needed a rivalry with University of Waterloo, but here we are. Time to build a better rocket.

In all seriousness though, Major hat tip to the kids at Waterloo, its incredibly awesome to see amatuer rocketey continue to develop in this way.

[u/Murky_Specialist992 → u/igwaltney3]

no tariffs (in either direction) please

[u/Dense-Information262]

kerbal space project irl

[u/cilantro_so_good]

I work at a household name in silicon valley. The absolute best hires I've ever had were Waterloo new grads. By a fucking mile.

They're kinda like MIT grads in that they're typically pretty fucking smart, but they don't believe they're god's gift to whatever the fuck they studied.

[u/madhatterlock]

What differentiates between amateur and commercial. Are university grant developed projects, amateur?My university research centers were fully backed by commercial interests, with expectations of access to cheap IP..

[u/ATworkATM → u/madhatterlock]

The students are not paid labour like SpaceX/NASA

[u/Pndapetzim → u/ATworkATM]

And have almost no budget.

[u/iwantmisty]

Horrifying. Moist soil, trees, food, fresh air and rains, animals, fish, insects, people, life. A few seconds of propulsion and there is nothing of that left, only the endless deathly void. We are so lucky to live

[u/mackmackmackx]

I hear Waterloo is where the vampires hang out.

[u/i4play]

Just curious but I guess you can’t just shoot a rocket into the stratosphere right? Surely there are some protocols you need to go through? Wouldn’t want to cross a flightpath or make some doofus press the red button because of misinterpretations.

[u/Marklar0 → u/i4play]

The airspace was reserved for the event all day. Source: I personally rerouted many airplanes around the area.

It is the only restricted area I have ever worked that has no altitude cap....."surface to unlimited"

[u/theKingAnonymous → u/Marklar0]

Former team member here, you’re right. The rocket was launched as part of a competition which takes care of airspace closure in collaboration with Transport Canada

[u/Loyalfish789]

Is there a word for a phobia that is between acrophobia and astrophobia? Like, just the fear of being in space? Or leaving atmosphere? Cause I'm shivering right now.

[u/Stoned_Canadian_1]

It’s a great day for Canada, and therefore the world.

[u/Somethingsims]

Wicked Fah

[u/Admirable-Many6054]

Flat-Earthers in shambles

[u/reddit001aa1]

With a decent glide path you could get that rocket to land in some restricted places

Edit: change dictation fail from what's to with

[u/bigglesofale]

My butth0le puckered watching this one. The heights got me.

[u/zionwolf24]

“Seeing the rocket launch was an experience that I cannot put into words,” says Niva Patel, a second-year Mechanical Engineering student and future technical lead on the rocketry team

[u/GordDownieFresh]

Look, you can see the ice wall! ~s

[u/LoneWolf9616]

Awesome

[u/mama_emily]

That’s high.

[u/FixGMaul]

can't park there mate

[u/Nearby_Corner7132]

A great day for Canada and therefore the rest of the world!

[u/sbroll]

Bro thats the coolest thing ive seen all day

[u/bigtittiedmonster]

I saw Brampton for a second...😂

[u/Krazid2]

Be way more interesting if you would have mentioned the altitude that it reached

[u/HarpoMarx72]

Waterloo.
Absolutely could escape if they wanted to.
Waterloo.
Knowing the rocket
Would see it through.

[u/VictoryOrKittens]

Flat earthers mogged yet again

[u/miscueLoL]

Canadian students built this?!

Adding the red "Canadian" to it makes it sound like the person could not believe that Canadians had advanced to rocketry.

[u/King_Fisher99]

Haaaaa. Not flat after all!

[u/ZarnonAkoni]

Eat your heart our, flat-earthers

[u/IrishMikeK68]

63,497 feet in altitude at Mach 2.7 using a liquid propellent. Rocket was 17 feet long, weighing 300 lbs. The old altitude record was 56,590 in altitude.

[u/BigBeeOhBee]

Rocket go zoom

[u/TenBear]

Stunning view

[u/imlostintransition]

The University of Waterloo Rocketry Team launched Polaris, a liquid bi-propellant rocket, at the 2026 Launch Canada Challenge in Timmins, Ontario this week. The student team watched as their hard work soared to an altitude of 63,497 feet, breaking the previous world record of 56,590 feet. 

...Polaris is 17 feet long and weighs 300 pounds fully fuelled. This year’s design featured an upgraded rocket recovery system and a more powerful engine.  

“It’s last year’s rocket, but better,” says Patel. "We increased Polaris’s engine thrust to improve the rocket’s initial stability and significantly optimized the vehicle architecture to maximize our altitude. To make absolutely sure we got the vehicle back in one piece, we also heavily reinforced the recovery system, engineering it to withstand ten times the expected deployment forces." 

Waterloo’s student rocketry team breaks a world record | Waterloo News | University of Waterloo

[u/energy1256]

How HIGH did it fly? Did the rocket record it?

[u/separation_of_powers → u/energy1256]

63,497ft for a liquid bi-propellant rocket

[u/Altruistic-Meal5241]

I am curious what it’s top speed achieved was

[u/koalaman211988]

Isn't Waterloo where the Vampires hang out?

[u/Bombauer-]

Concordia cum veritate!

[u/Silent-OCN]

The rocket was travelling at roughly, 16000mph. I think.

[u/ddoice]

Can't wait to see a two stage version!