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by starpilot 2215 days ago
He buys the rocket motors. From his FAQ:

> Do you make your own motors?

> Nope, I use commercially available propellants. Usually black powder motors from Estes or APCP motors from Aerotech. For custom or more complicated builds, BPS.space outsources propellant work to other manufacturers, who can often achieve higher precision and predictability than any consumer setup. I learn best by experimentation, which works very well for software and electronics, less so for explosives and propellants.

> I also got a C+ in chemistry during high school - designing and making rocket propellant is not a good idea for me :)

It sounds like he makes the rocket housings then tweaks some parameters to make them fly.

2 comments

As someone with experience on the model rocket side, the electronics part of the project is highly impressive, especially using thrust vectoring to get most of the way to landing.

Still, there's a huge gap, IMO, between that and building SpaceX level avionics

Watch one of his videos explaining how his flight computers work. If you still think he's just "making rocket housings" afterwards, thats fine. But watch a video first: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCILl8ozWuxnFYXIe2svjHhg