It's interesting that I'm perfectly fluent in both US and metric units, yet I don't have a personal frame of reference for the magnitude of many of the numbers given in the article, in either unit system. For instance, how they compare to rockets that are actually in practical use.

Compare to New Shepard (Blue Origin suborbital passenger vehicle): 1 km/s top speed, 100-120 km max altitude. Of course it also carries a payload of six passengers and (the rocket part) lands propulsively.

Compare to orbital rockets: (low earth) orbital velocity is 7.8 km/s, the ISS orbits at about 400 km, the lowest satellites are at about 200 km.