The X-10 Water Rocket, designed by U.S. Water Rockets, with a 1,481 foot average altitude, has established another new World Record for Water Rocket altitude, surpassing their old record of 1,471 feet by a mere 10 foot margin. The record was achieved during test flights earlier today in which team was testing a refined nozzle design. Sources close to the team report that the new nozzle worked as design and allowed the rocket to beat the previous altitude with a lower pressure than had been used previously.

Spectators stated that the flights went off like clockwork and the only anomaly experienced was that in one of the flights the high level winds were moving faster to the North than expected which put the rocket into a descent trajectory which touched down on land instead of the planned water splashdown recovery. Review of the camera footage shows that the landing came as a susprise to a bystander reading a newspaper on his front porch.

The recent test flights proved out the latest nozzle designs by allowing a greater height to be achieved at a lower pressure, as predicted with computer models. Also under testing was the latest revision of the U.S. Water Rockets Flight Control Software. The launch crew was very pleased with the results of both tests. Further analysis of the returned flight data may yield even more optimizations for the X-10 rocket.

The X-10 Rocket is classified as what is commonly called a "True Water Rocket". This class of rockets uses compressed air to force a volume of water from a nozzle to propel the rocket up into the air. X-10 is the tenth in a series of experimental designs currently being flight-tested by U.S. Water Rockets over the course of the last 13 months.

U.S. Water Rockets intends to use the data obtained in these tests to continue refining their computer models and periodically best their current new record in future flights of X-10. The latest results show that the current design has only been tested to half of its pressure capacity. Their efforts to expand the performance envelope are now being dictated by the changing weather. With ever increasing altitudes, the team needs optimal wind conditions to avoid losing the rocket to wind drift in the recovery phase. Further test flights will be made as the weather permits.