[Houshalter]

Yeah what he did was definitely cool. But if you just want to test a hypothesis, it would be much easier to send a camera and not a whole person. Also a balloon could obtain a higher altitude than any amateur rocket. And people have filmed the curvature of the Earth with just balloons, they can get quite high.

[starik36]

I am sure just the enormous challenge of actually building a rocket with a couple of friends also played a major role.