CU Spaceflight

CU Spaceflight is a student-run Cambridge University society founded with the aim of achieving cheap access to space. It is supported by the Cambridge-MIT Institute.

The project was founded in the summer of 2006, with the specific goal of launching a rocket into space for less than GBP£1000.

As of November, 2007, CU Spaceflight has launched five unmanned high-altitude balloons, of which two were not successful: Nova 2 was blown into the North Sea and Nova 5 failed to ignite the Martlet 1 solid rocket motor, but landed in a reusable state.

CU Spaceflight is a participant of the UK High Altitude Society.

On 27 June 2007, CU Spaceflight won the Owlstone Photography Prize, having submitted an unenhanced photograph from the Nova 1 flight, displaying the curvature of the Earth as seen from Near space. The entry was entitled "Earth from 32km". CU Spaceflight won a cash prize and 25-hours of workshop time.

As of 2007^[update], Cambridge University Spaceflight has three projects which it is pursuing; all three are critical to the long-term goal of successfully launching a rocket into space and retrieving it.

Nova is CU Spaceflight's first project and has the objective of launching high-altitude balloons on test flights to near space. The lifting gas used is helium.

Meteor is a project designed to provide a landing system for falling body to a 100-metre accuracy, from any point within the Earth's atmosphere. The Meteor project will use a paraglider to land objects.

Martlet is the project aimed at the development of a small rocket and launch system which can be launched from a Nova balloon in the upper atmosphere.

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