Rocket Guy Hopes to Go to Space

B E N D, Ore., Dec. 1 -- There's an infamous line from the old Star Trek television series: "To boldly go where no man has gone," and it just happens to be the goal for one Oregon man who plans to become the world's first backyard astronaut.

Brian Walker, also known as "Rocket Guy", has built his very own rocket, and hopes sometime next year he will climb aboard and take a ride to the edge of the atmosphere.

"Hopefully I'll launch from the black rock desert in Nevada," Walker told ABCNEWS affiliate, KXLY-TV in Spokane, Wash.

Walker is now in the fourth year of Project R.U.S.H — Rapid Up Super High — which he hopes will eventually help him reach a long-dreamed goal.

When the rocket, Earthstar One, is completed, Walker will ascend straight up 50 miles in it. The rocket will be fueled by 90 percent pure hydrogen peroxide, and will descend on its own with parachutes to assure a smooth recovery.

In the past four years of work on his project, Walker has built numerous rocket prototypes. He built a test rocket half the size of the intended final model.

When he launches the test rocket, Walker said he plans to ascend to 15,000 feet, and then descend in a sky dive using a conventional backpack parachute.

He has already used the test model to perform numerous tests on the rocket's critical revolutionary systems to assure that he will have a safe trip, when he attempts to go where he says no man has gone before.

"Still, something hasn't been done yet where a person has actually ascended vertically in a rocket," he said. "It's never been done."

Walker has worked long and hard to assure that he is prepared for his journey. He built his very own centrifuge to prepare for the G-force he will experience.

He also flew halfway to outer space in a MIG fighter, on a trip to Russia, and he experienced weightlessness with the Cosmonauts who sold him his very own space suit. Walker calls the suit "my major first line of defense."

Satisfying a Childhood Dream