Student-made rocket smashes 20-year-old world record, soaring 470,400 feet above Earth

USC engineering students broke the amateur rocketry altitude record with their Aftershock II rocket, reaching 89.09 miles above Earth's surface. The 13-foot, 330-pound rocket achieved a top speed of 3,602 mph during its October 20 launch from Nevada's Black Rock Desert. It featured the most powerful solid-propellant motor ever fired by students and overcame challenges like hypersonic heat protection. The team developed custom onboard computers to track flight dynamics and quickly recover the rocket, which returned safely with valuable data.