Meet the USC student rocket club that shattered a world altitude record

Five years after becoming the first students to launch a rocket into space, the University of Southern California Rocket Propulsion Lab soared past 470,000 feet for the highest amateur spaceflight. Such feats have made it a top incubator for space industry talent.

This could not be happening. Five years after becoming the first students to launch a rocket into space, the University of Southern California Rocket Propulsion Lab (USCRPL) was readying a redesigned model, Aftershock II, for an even higher ascent from Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. But after months of prepping, the weekend before liftoff rolled around with an ominous threat of rain. Even a tenth of an inch could turn the dusty expanse into the same muddy mess that had trapped thousands of revelers at Burning Man there last year. The day before they’d planned to leave, a contact at the Bureau of Land Management sent a photo of the flooded basin.