MESOS (the citizen rocket)
2022
Spaceflight is not only for NASA and SpaceX. In October 2022 a private citizen launched a two-stage rocket he built himself over three years to the edge of space - and the footage shows the curve of the horizon.
Specs
MESOS: a two-stage rocket built by Kip Daugirdas (a University of Michigan alum) over three years. 12.3 ft, 87 lb, O4500 + M830 motors. Launched from Black Rock Desert, Nevada, October 2022. GPS-verified apogee 293,488 ft (89.5 km) - the edge of space, just below the 100 km Kármán line. His December 2019 flight reached ~90 km; 2019 press reported him as the first self-funded private citizen to reach the edge of space.
Why it matters
This is the other half of 'space is real': not just that you can buy a seat (space tourism), but that an ordinary person can build a rocket to the edge of space with a $300 action camera. And the footage - shot on a low-distortion rectilinear lens, with the curve visible at different frame positions - shows the horizon curving exactly as a sphere predicts. A lens artefact cannot explain a GPS-verified apogee.