University rocket launch success from Ayrshire moor

The 2.2m long Nebula rocket was designed by a team at Imperial College London

A rocket has been launched from a moor in Ayrshire by a group of students aiming to cross the boundary of space.

The Nebula rocket blasted off to nearly 5,000m on a test flight from Fairlie Moor on Saturday.

Imperial College London's Karman Space Programme hopes to become the first university team to launch a reusable rocket into space.

The project is named after the Karman line, the internationally recognised boundary to space at 100km high.

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Saturday's launch tested avionics and telemetry systems to enable future rockets to go beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

Powered by solid rocket propellant, the 2.2m long Nebula rocket was designed and built by the student team.

Nebula's nose cone separated earlier than planned and parachutes intended to bring it down to earth gently did not deploy properly.

However, operations lead Dyuti Chakraborty, 19, said the team gathered important data about how the rocket functioned.

"I think everyone is ecstatic and just so relieved that we could do it," she said.

"We've been on this rocket for a very long time and for many of us it's our first rocket that we've ever designed or made.

"It's been quite a nerve-wracking couple of days."

Around 50 students are involved in the project. They plan to cross the Karman line with future versions of the Nebula by 2024.

They intend to build a nine metre-long rocket which will be powered by ethanol and nitrous oxide.