How a Slice of Cheese Almost Derailed Europe's Most Important Rocket Test

Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shared this report from the blog Interesting Engineering: A team of students made history this month by performing Europe's first rocket hop test. Those who have followed SpaceX's trajectory will know hop tests are a vital stepping stone for a reusable rocket program, as they allow engineers to test their rocket's landing capabilities. Impressively, no private company or space agency in Europe had ever performed a rocket hop test before. Essentially, a group of students performed one of the most important rocket tests in the history of European rocketry. However, the remarkable nature of this story doesn't end there. Amazingly, the whole thing was almost derailed by a piece of cheese. A slice of Gruyere the team strapped to their rocket's landing legs almost caused the rocket to spin out of control. Thankfully, disaster was averted, and the historic hopper didn't end up as rocket de-Brie.

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