Copenhagen Suborbitals' achievements include [1]:

- Most powerful amateur rocket ever flown.

- First amateur rocket flown with a payload of a full-size crash test dummy.

- First Main Engine(s) Cut-Off (MECO) command sent to, received and performed by an amateur rocket.

- Handling and orchestration of a sea launch, by a small-budget organization.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Suborbitals

Surely it is not the first co-founder convicted of murder.

Here's my claim to fame: I went on a very short dive with him in Copenhagen harbour in the submarine he built before that one.

I wonder what happened to the submarine he sunk. Was it salvageable?

The police salvaged it as part of the murder investigation. No idea if it's operational though.

Happy other people took over.

Hans Reiser

Past discussions:

Copenhagen Suborbitals: The world’s only manned, amateur space program - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18205435 - Oct 2018 (70 comments)

Copenhagen Suborbitals Successfully Launches Active Guided Rocket - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5944957 - June 2013 (41 comments)

Copenhagen Suborbitals Release Snowmix, an Open Source Video Mixer - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4605030 - Oct 2012 (2 comments)

Copenhagen Suborbitals open-source private spacerocket will launch in an hour - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2616050 - June 2011 (57 comments)

Non-Profit to Launch Human Into Space Using €50,000 Spaceship - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1624552 - Aug 2010 (10 comments)

Record-Breaking Amateur Rocket Launch - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=583550 - April 2009 (16 comments)

Does anyone know why they don’t have an interest/long-term goal of building an orbital rocket?

I think it's just the cost. The Spica is about the smallest rocket that could get a human past the Karman line. It's 12m high and weighs 4000kg. To get into orbit, you'd need something around the size of the Mercury/Atlas rocket, which was 120,000 kg to get a 1500kg capsule to orbit.

Of course, they could do an unmanned mission. The smallest orbital rockets are about 10m tall and 2.5T, for a payload in the 5-10kg range. But I think that is not as interesting for them.

Hmm not working from my Firefox (latest on W10): secure connection failed with MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_REQUIRED_TLS_FEATURE_MISSING... Chrome works though.

Works fine in Firefox 92 and Edge. Maybe a temporary error?

Still not but eh happens. Same 92 here...