Accepting the Risk of Death in Spaceflight

Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen have been developing Copenhagen Suborbitals, the open source, backyard endeavor they founded to launch themselves into space, for five years now. In the midst of ever more models and tests (here is a nice update on the Tycho Deep Space II capsule if you’re interested), von Bengtson took a few minutes to talk about the potential consequences. Never one to hide from the truth, this is not the first time von Bengston has highlighted the dangers of his more-than-hobby. Last year, he rather humorously explored all the “horrible deaths” one could experience in a spaceflight gone bad. As the modern day founder of DIY spaceflight puts it, “I think most people will actually accept some slight risk of death if they’re able to fulfill their wildest dreams.”