Russ Strand

Russ Strand grew up in Didcot, Oxfordshire, England with his brother and two sisters. He studied Aeronautical Engineering at Farnborough College of Technology (Surrey University) as an undergraduate and achieved a BSc with Honors (2:1). He went on to achieve an MSc from Cranfield University in Astronautics and Space Engineering and stayed on to pursue a PhD in Continuum Mechanics. During his time at Cranfield Russ became affiliated with the Cranfield University Rocket Society (CURS) and later went on to become the society's president. With CURS, Russ developed a passion for all things rocket related and went on to build his own rockets, challenging himself to work towards achieving the coveted Level 3 certification with the United Kingdom Rocketry Association (UKRA). In 2012 he was elected to the UKRA council and was presented with the opportunity to work with the BBC in 2013 for an episode of CBeebies Nina and the Neurons. He appeared on the 'Space Rockets' episode as 'Russ The Rocket Man' and even got a mention from Luke the Neuron, a show first! In the summer of 2013, Russ attempted the 'big one', his UKRA Level 3 launch with a rocket he built in 7 days. The launch of the 3.5m, 0.3m wide 'KAOS' rocket on June 1st 2013 was a huge success and the whole event, including the build was filmed for a feature called 'Die Liebe eines Engländers zu seiner Rakete' ('The Love of an Englishman for his Rocket') on Servus TV's TM Wissen program which aired in October 2013.