A self-taught rocketry enthusiast and YouTuber, Joe Barnard, posted a video on his YouTube channel in which he flew a rocket to nearly 30,000 feet at supersonic speeds before ejecting a small camera pod near the top to capture the parachutes opening from outside the vehicle in slow motion.

The rocket launch took place just outside of Randsburg, California, and the video was posted Thursday, November 5.

According to Barnard, such views have stayed away from the reach of amateur rocketry experiments, as the timing, forces, and recovery have to come into alignment after the vehicle has set off its journey at heavy acceleration during wobbly flight.

Barnard designed the rocket and the remote operation system specifically to achieve the purpose at the Mach 2 speeds.

Nine layers of fiberglass were used to make the upper piece of the rocket. This multi-layered material boosts the rocket’s strength to handle the pressure and speeds during its flight, even with a large opening through which the camera pod sticks out. For the ride, he also reinforced the rocket’s lower booster with a carbon fiber tube and powered it with a powerful impulse-class engine that could deliver an average thrust of 2300 newtons (N). He made his own mix of rocket propellant for the launch.

Besides the modifications to the aircraft’s design, Barnard used a separate computer system named Fluctus to keep a watch on the speed, pressure, and altitude of the rocket and decide the firing of pods and opening of parachutes during the ascent.

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