Walker explains the engineering behind his project, including a pneumatic launch system that catapults the rocket before engine ignition, a finless bullet-shaped capsule redesigned for stability, and multiple redundant recovery systems featuring drag chutes, ram-air parachutes, and a personal bailout option. He has built a backyard centrifuge to simulate the six-G forces he will experience and traveled to Russia to fly a MiG-25 at 80,000 feet and train at the cosmonaut facility.
The self-made millionaire describes his lifelong dream of spaceflight, his 250 media interviews since going public, and his plan to launch in May 2002. He discusses FAA considerations, the possibility of relocating to Mexico if permits are denied, and the broader significance of a private citizen attempting what only governments have accomplished.
Key Moments
Earth Star 1 - backyard rocket to space: Art reads the New York Post item: self-taught Bend, Oregon toy inventor Brian Walker is building a $250,000 hydrogen-peroxide rocket in his backyard, planning to ride 12,000 pounds of thrust to roughly 30 miles altitude - and if the FAA blocks the launch, he says he'll truck the whole thing across the border into Mexico.
If I die, I die: From the same Post piece, Walker's own line: he'd rather risk death than spend the next 40 years bitter that he never even tried. Art uses the quote to set the tone of the entire interview.
How a hydrogen-peroxide steam rocket works: Walker explains his propulsion in plain English: 90% pure hydrogen peroxide hits a chamber packed with silver-plated nickel screen, expands 600% as 1,300-degree steam, and a single main motor producing 12,000 lb of thrust burns 90 lb of fuel per second to push him past Mach 4 - without the catastrophic explosion risk of a bipropellant rocket.
Survivability first, mission success second: Asked about an escape route, Walker describes his abort handle: a single lever held back only by a thumb-button - release it under G and it kills the main engine, separates the capsule, fires emergency motors, and deploys two independent parachutes. He'll also wear a spacesuit with two more chutes and a positive bailout system.
Robert Truax, Knievel, and NASA's coming heartburn: Walker connects his project to the lineage of Robert Truax's hydrogen-peroxide steam motor for Evel Knievel's Snake River Canyon jump (which he believes would have worked but for a parachute lever slipping under G), and Art predicts NASA - having spent billions on the shuttle and ISS - won't appreciate a man flying himself to suborbital space for a quarter of a million dollars.