When Peter Madsen and I told blog-readers at ing.dk (Danish Engineering Site), in 2008, that Copenhagen Suborbitals was founded and our mission was to build an “amateur” suborbital space rocket, the post was met with skepticism and even hoax claims.
I guess it is a natural reaction to deem something a hoax if it sounds far-fetched. I might have done the same. Nevertheless, such skepticism must be embraced because it is often an indicator of potential new grounds to break.
In a few months Copenhagen Suborbitals has been exciting for five years. Together with 45 hardworking friends, Peter and I have spent full time on this each year. So far, we have performed 63 engine tests, most which spectators have seen live on site or on the internet. We have launched a bunch of rockets from the Baltics and tested two prototype space capsules. Software, electronics, separations systems and parachutes has been developed.
We have tried to show the world our process and ideas through sketches, blogs, website and interviews and for a long time the hoax label vanished.
A couple of days ago this debate emerged once again on the blog at ing.dk, which is the personal blog of my partner and co-founder Peter Madsen.
In this post by Madsen [1] it was heavily debated if we are allowed to do what we do and if it is OK for Peter to fly the rocket. A reader response that it does matter and who cares about Peter flying the rocket, because it is a hoax [2].
My first reaction to such claims is always a smile - and soon after posting this on Twitter “Some people claim to have "insider info" saying Copenhagen Suborbitals is a media stunt or a hoax. What do you think?” responses were send backing our legitimacy.
Jeff Blundel, who were here a couple of years ago, on behalf of Discovery Channel wrote:
But how does Jeff and everyone else know this is not a hoax? Seeing with your own eyes or on TV that we build large rockets and work 24/7 on this does not prove the opposite. Theoretically it could still be an elaborate hoax or a media stunt.
I have always been puzzled about the very harmless way we have been treated by interested parties or the press. No one really dig deep and I asked a journalist once "why does no one every tries to find a dark spot in this project?" – the answer was “Well, you have pretty much covered your ass by showing us all, so I don’t believe there is anything there...”
The case of trying to convince people that his is not a hoax is not strengthen by the fact that I was once a part of a large hoax art project called the ID Sniper. Of the hundreds of interviews I have done related to Copenhagen Suborbitals only one Finnish journalist found me related to the ID Sniper and asked me “why we should believe you this time?”
The ID Sniper may have been a hoax project but the underlying art project was not. The mission was to create a hoax but Copenhagen Suborbitals is not.
Think about it. What would we gain from doing Copenhagen Suborbital as a hoax? Just as little as doing the moon landings as a hoax. All the energy, man-power, money and efforts put into this is only rewarded by doing the real deal instead of cheating everyone else (and yourself).
If the effort of doing the hoax is just as big as the real deal, why not do the real deal? If you can see us build the rockets and you can come see and smell the engine tests on site, why would we not be using this hardware for a flight?
That is why Copenhagen Suborbital is not a hoax.
However, I am still very curious about the claims and insider intel, saying it is. I urge everyone with such knowledge to present it.
The might be things going on inside Copenhagen Suborbitals I didn’t know about :)
Ad Astra
Kristian von Bengtson
