Rebirth of the British space program

PARIS was a rare example of non-governmental development of a space project. The mission was completed on an undisclosed day in 2010. PARIS is an acronym for Paper Airplane Released Into Space.

PARIS was the culmination of two year's effort by The Register Special Projects Division.  Some may be be more familiar with it as the black ops department of UK-based information technology website, The Register. The publication's logo is black and white, depicting the side profile of a large-beaked bird of prey. The PARIS flight craft was aptly named Vulture 1.

El Reg premieres PARIS.

Vulture 1

PARIS is not a parody. Although the documentary video is a bit humorous, PARIS did succeed in attaining sufficient altitude that the curvature of Earth was clearly visible. The PARIS mission achieved a maximum altitude three times greater than that of any prior paper airplane flight. Vulture 1 landed about 100 miles from the launch site.

Lego fans should make sure to look closely at the pilot.

Q & A

Some relevant questions and answers:

• Why not put a small camera on the plane? They tried but couldn't get a camera sufficiently small and light enough. 
• Is the entire descent viewable somewhere? Afraid not; even if they could have found a small, lightweight camera, none had adequate battery power to go the distance.
• How did they overcome the 100 mile winds Vulture 1 experienced during flight, given it was made of paper and straw? The wind wasn't a problem, as the parachute landing balloon and the plane drifted with the wind, thus weren't really subject to any great force. A more serious problem for the mission was the cold temperature, about -60 degrees C at the chilliest.
• What was the entire budget for the project? About £9k. That was for everything, including travel. 
• Does the Great Britain have a space program? Yes, it does: the UK Space Agency. The UK has always emphasized uncrewed space research and commercial initiatives rather than a manned flight program as government policy.

The mission launch and landing were in Spain. That's because the Register Special Projects Bureau is based there. The acronym chosen for the project, PARIS, and the fact that it is in France, has not been addressed.

El Reg special projects don't seem to be doing much with their YouTube channel since 2012; however, 54 past videos are still available for viewing.