Rocket man aims for record launch

BEN WATSON/North Shore Times

BLAST OFF: Phil Vukovich hopes to launch his rocket 10km up on Sunday.

Relevant offers

Phil Vukovich is a rocket man.

He will turn Taupiri into something like a Nasa launch site when his sugar and salt fuelled rocket blasts off to a world record height on Sunday.

It is the latest in a long line of rockets the Belmont man has painstakingly put together in his garage.

"It’s excitement, it’s adrenaline, it’s anticipation – everything rolled into one.

"The sense of achievement when you launch a rocket is just immense," he says.

Mr Vukovich got into "rocketry" when his wife got him a model rocket about nine years
ago.

That sparked a persistent passion for constructing and launching rockets to record heights.

His first launch took a 1kg rocket about 1km in the air with 400 grams of propellant.

His second used 5kg of propellant and his third 15kg.

Now he is set to launch one 10km up – a record for a sugar-fuelled rocket.

"After the first launch, it was immediately obvious that this thing works so the next thought was ‘okay, I’ll build a bigger one’.

"Everything just got bigger and bigger.

"We’re hoping to break the world record with this one."

A computer on board will plot the rocket’s trajectory and Mr Vukovich hopes to recover it after the launch.

"If you lose one it’s kind of heartbreaking.

"You spend so long and to never find it again can be devastating."

To find out more about Mr Vukovich’s record launch go to www.nzrocketry.org.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News