Congolese Rocketeer's Personal Space Race Turns Vermin into Astronauts | Hacker News Reader

Congolese Rocketeer's Personal Space Race Turns Vermin into Astronauts

wsj.com

76 pointsselimthegrim28 comments

Here is wiki article about his rockets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troposphere_%28rocket_family%2...

I am rooting so much for this guy, his determination just made my day. Also all his quotes and paraphrases are hilarious.

"Despite Troposphere 5 being equipped with an escape chute, Kavira(rat) was never found and was officially reported to have died in the name of science."

Here is a good report on Troposphere V launch (in french): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrlKWtkce5I

Clear footage of the Troposphere V launch can be seen at 2:17 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrlKWtkce5I&t=137

Putting a rat into space in a Ovaltine can is some serious "Zefram Cochrane" level sh#t right there. Where can I donate?

> “I will do my utmost to bring that rat back alive,” he says. “But if not, there’s a lot of rats in Kinshasa.”

And to be honest: good riddance if a few of them disappear while doing something useful for a change ;-)

Meanwhile US is getting to the state of calling out SWAT teams if a kid is even thinking of making a model rocket.

Or is otherwise mistakable for Congolese.

The Wikipedia article list a few projects in USA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_rocketry#Notable_event...

But they look like organized by a small team, not by a single man like in this article. (Perhaps he has some helpers but the article didn't mention them to simplify the story.)

The article mentions his hiring college graduates.

It's always a pity to see wasted talent. Being able to make what he did in that environment is really impressive.

Von Braun wouldn't have gotten anywhere if he didn't have the backing and financing of Nazi Germany.

To be fair, he did much more interesting (and ethical) stuff when he had the backing of the US afterwards.

Was there really a big difference - in the technology ? just the natural evolution of past efforts, technologically speaking.

I don't know how much different the fundamental technology was, but the results were vastly better because of the far greater resources and much better goals he had with the US. Building advanced rockets on a shoestring with slave labor isn't really a recipe for great success.

Prior to Kennedy's promise to land a man on the moon by the end of the 60s, the budget he was getting from the US wasn't all that great either. Dwight D Eisenhower hated Von Braun because he had a tendency to overspend, and was always begging for more funding.

What a great story! Sure he will inspire so many kids to get interested in science.

Also wondering: why does the headline say "African"? Africa is not a country. I don't think the WSJ says "European" when they mean "French" or "North American" when they write about somebody in Texas.

I love "Asian" as a description. I'm quite sure Asian-american doesn't mean someone from Armenia.

"Urban" is also a great euphemism for "black" that often pops up.

In the same way that "urbane" doesn't.

Which is ironic given that the very concept of "cool" originated within various tribes of Western, Central and Eastern Africa. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3334749?seq=1#page_scan_tab_cont...

What should the headline be?

Congolese

Not to be offensive or anything, but for quite a lot of people, that's the extent of knowledge they have of "Africa" as a concept. Even ones that do know, they essentially clump all the individual countries into one bucket, and use that for basing their assumptions/opinions. It's gotten better over the years, but I've also gotten used to it. Also, I do my best to correct any misconceptions they have about the place I've called home for quite a bit of my life.

Sure, and they'll continue to have limited knowledge as long as the media continues treating the continent like a monolith. WSJ readers are more sophisticated than the average, I would imagine they could handle it.

Especially because it diminishes his achievement.

In some other African countries, building your own rocket is not such a big deal. South Africa, for instance, has its own amateur rocketry association [0], has shops specialising in rocket parts and once had a LEO space launcher and ICBM programme that was cancelled with the end of Apartheid. There are dozens of amateurs building serious rockets.

It's far more impressive to me that this guy is Congolese and operating without any of that supporting infrastructure or shared knowledge. The headline removes needed context and makes the story seem less interesting than it really is.

[0]: http://www.rocketry.org.za

Well, the borders and names of many countries in sub-saharan Africa have gone through dramatic changes over the past few decades.

Not trying to be a jerk, let's say he's 45 years old, and lived all his life in Kinshasa (previously Leopoldville), then most of his life was lived in a country named Zaire. So then there are the why's of which countries were actually valid states, and whether this or that country counts more. So maybe language is the answer? If he speaks Kongo, is he Kongo or Congolese, or if he speaks Ligala or several languages, then what?

Maybe the reporter asked him which he prefered? Maybe the editor vetoed it. Maybe they all had similar discussions we're having in this thread.

There have been changes to be sure. As also happened/is happening in Eastern Europe. But of course these countries have a name, no matter how new, and journalists have no problem using them in those other cases.

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