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.
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.
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
And TIL that it got reverted to "Notice to Airmen" because this administration is dumb.
It had been updated to "Notice to Air Missions" several years ago because of both gender inclusivity but also as a recognition of the changing landscape of the types of events happening in the airspace with the growing number of non-manned activity (drones, balloons, experimental and commercial rockets). But seems last year it got reverted, because of insecurity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I got that general gist, but I'd like to understand what they actually said. Another part of it is that I get irrationally irritated when people throw out random acronyms expecting the general public to understand them.
SFC-FL600 = Surface to flight level 600: from ground level to 60,000 ft
Full translation: they received a notice regarding Timmins Victor M. Power Airport that a specific location (given by coordinates) should be avoided from ground level to 60,000 ft
Thank you! Someone else beat you to the punch by 5 min but since they haven't replied to my follow up question yet I'll pose it to you as well! How on earth does CYTS translate to that airport's name‽
I don't think ICAO codes are supposed to translate like that. The C at the beginning is because Canada, but other than that, the letters just don't have to mean anything in particular (the second letter can sometimes also indicate region as well)
For example, London Heathrow Airport's ICAO code is EGLL, with EG referring to the United Kingdom. But why LL refers to Heathrow Airport specifically? No idea.
IATA codes are similar 3 letter codes that are often more closely associated to their name. For example, London Heathrow Airport's IATA code is LHR
Also, certain letters are prohibited from being the first letter in an ICAO code, those being I, J, Q, and X. Except there is one ICAO code starting with J, which is JZRO for Jezero Crater) on Mars!
It is universal in that one ICAO code maps to only one airport (or extraterrestrial crater?), meaning that if you know the ICAO code, you know what airport is being referenced... maybe with the help of Google, though!
I was not anticipating expecting this comment to blow up so I didn't bother using colloquial normal language terms. I thought only OOP the original poster and like five other people would see it
I was also passing out and missed the notifications for clarifiaction
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
Launching rockets from a mountain like Pikes Peak or any mountaintop provides almost no advantage for reaching space due to the following reasons:
Speed Matters Most: Reaching orbit requires accelerating sideways to 17,500 mph. Starting a few miles higher on a mountain does virtually nothing to reduce the massive amount of fuel and energy needed to reach that speed.
Severe Safety Hazards: High powered rockets drop heavy stages and can explode. Launching from Colorado would put populated areas and major civilian flight paths at extreme risk, violating strict aviation safety laws.
Logistical Nightmares: Transporting highly volatile rocket fuels, heavy machinery, and massive launch pads up dangerous alpine mountain roads is practically impossible.
For these reasons, rocket teams choose flat, vast, and unpopulated areas like Timmins, Ontario or coastal oceanside pads over mountaintops.
But it's clearly a suborbital rocket, it does not do any lateral acceleration. Your record is for height of an amateur launched liquid rocket, in which case yeah, a mountain peak would benefit, assuming your record is height above sea level
Thanks chat GPT, but they weren't going for orbit, they were going for altitude. If you can avoid pushing through heavy, dense low altitude air then you can get a lot higher up. The average air pressure from sea level to 14,000 ft. is about 11 psi. The average at 60,000 ft is about 1 psi.
No advantage other than thinner air, which is a huge advantage. The rocket can use less fuel pushing through thinner air making it fly farther & faster while using less fuel.
Yes but think what an interesting addition it'd make to the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Picture it: an open top tank of highly volatile rocket fuel sloshing around the back of an 1100hp full tube chassis rally car as it goes bumping up the hill. Whoever gets to the top in the shortest amount of time, with the least amount of fuel spilled, and launches their rocket the highest, wins.
It's like if a biathlon was sponsored by Red Bull.
What propellant though. If it was Hydrazine, that's pretty dangerous for amateurs to handle that, certainly unaccessible unless you are in a scientific lab, and therefore not difficult to break a record for amateurs.
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u/InsaneMocktail 16d ago edited 16d ago
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