So I'm Going Into Low Orbit.

Higgins, TC and I have been working on an amateur spacecraft with the hope of acheiving an independent low earth orbit. This has been going on for maybe five or so years. We have all put quite a lot of time and money into the project and Rick was involved early on but he just had so much invested in the club that he had to scale down. Anyway, parachute deployment is still his original design so, Thanks Rick!. Higgins did concept stuff mostly. Instead of the usual booster rocket configuration that you see on TV Higgins came up with a way of having the air in front of the S:X9000 (our ship) actually pull us upwards using his molecular disturbance technology that he came up with when he was trying to give the lads worming tablets. I don't really understand it (and don't really want to) but it really does work and thats all due to our little fat British guy. Nice one Higgins!. TC bought all the beers and designed and fitted the avionics. He did an excellent job. It's plastic but looks like wallnut veneer. I built the moulds and did all the glassing (which I went to tech college to learn how to do) and I am very proud of the final result. The ship is very classy looking indeed and we are all going to take turns going into space starting tomorrow. I drew the short straw so I am going to be first. The plan is to take my ipod up and a case of beer and just enjoy the view. No experiments or NASA bs. Maybe some transcendental meditation. Eventually of course, if we like it up here we may build a small mother station. Anyway, I'll update after splash down.

Wish me luck,

Thomas.