The business of building and launching rockets into space has generally been monopolized by government agencies like, you know, NASA.

But in five days, a 15-member nonprofit in Copenhagen, Denmark, will be taking a more populist approach to space travel. Fueled only by sponsors and volunteers, these guys are building a full-scale, mind-blowing rocketship with a final destination of the stratosphere.

The project began two-and-a-half years ago when Peter Madsen, a self-dubbed "designer of extreme machines" and Kristian von Bengtson, a former NASA architect, met in Copenhagen. 'Twas a true match made in heaven, because shortly after their meeting they decided to collaborate on this "micro-spacecraft" project. Their ultimate goal? To send an actual, breathing human into space within the next three to four years.

Says Madsen, "We wanted to show the world and ourselves and everybody that, as amateurs, it's actually possible, using everyday common materials, to produce a booster rocket and a space capsule and send it into space."

Despite the monumental nature of this project, the group remains pretty humble regarding its endeavors.

"What we're doing here is kind of our tiny version of Kennedy's challenge to the American's back in the 1960s," explains Madsen in an exclusive Asylum interview. "He suggested that the United States commit itself to sending a man to the moon and return him safely to Earth."

Their micro-spacecraft (which is actually 45 feet tall), launches on Sept. 1, in Denmark. And as if the whole building-a-spacecraft thing wasn't impressive enough, they're actually using a homemade submarine to lug the device out to sea, where it'll be launched.

This particular rocket is the first in a series of four, which they'll launch. Then, depending on how successful this and the subsequent launches are, they'll finally be ready to send a human up, up and away.

"I've learned what it means to be in an unofficial space race," Madsen tells Asylum. "We've booked long hours, and there is a very powerful and very joyful energy in the group. I don't worry much about the rocket, but I do worry about the girlfriends and the lovers and the wives who aren't seeing their men very much."

Surely these women understand the vital importance of such a mission -- a mission, we might add, that nearly every young lad has fantasized about.

The group's endeavors are financed via thousands of private donors who give anywhere from $40 to several hundred dollars. They are not affiliated with any government agency, and donations go toward supplies only.

To learn more about their project, visit Copenhagen Suborbitals.