Following hundreds of hours of designing, testing and reviewing, Stanford Student Space Initiative successfully fired Lightning, its first full-scale rocket engine, in the Mojave Desert. This crucial test put the group one giant leap closer to its goal of becoming the first university-affiliated group to launch a rocket into space, which it hopes to complete in the next year. You can read more about SSI and its other projects in “Countdown,” this month’s online exclusive.
Photo: Courtesy Stanford Student Space Initiative