NEW LAUNCH DATE/TIME: PENDING FURTHER ANALYSIS

Due to a windy forecast all week long, we have a small launch window earlier in the morning on Wednesday, February 19th. Stay tuned, as the weather forecast isn't so great.

Cascade Schools's first near-space balloon launch is scheduled for sometime Feb 18-22 at 9am, from the school grounds. The launch date is weather dependent, meaning we need at least partly sunny skies, little to no wind, and not too cold out. That's going to be difficult in February, but the reason why we're launching now, and not when it's super nice out, is because Science Fair is coming up Feb 25th in Great Falls, and we want to show off the result of our science experiments.  

Our helium filled balloon will carry several capsules to near space, around 90,000 feet up (that's about 17 miles) before the balloon exceeds its capacity to grow, and bursts, causing the capsules to fall back to Earth under parachute. We'll track the progress via ham radio trackers with GPS data. We're flying 5 cameras, one is HD video, another SD video with GPS track overlayed to the recording, and a digital still camera snapping pics every 10 seconds, along with up and down facing video cameras. We'll also be flying 2 bags of chips and a bag of cereal to test when the bags will pop, unleashing chips and cereal down upon the Earth. We'll also release 15 paper airplanes with our address and phone number for people to report finding them, if they're found. 

Thanks to KRTV Great Falls and First Interstate Bank for helping fund the purchase of helium gas for this flight, under the "One Classroom at a Time" grant. Results of the project will be on display at Science Fair 2014 in Great Falls late February. Stay tuned here. We'll post updates as we get them.

Status: Launch conditions for a Tuesday launch are not looking good. Expect a delay until Wednesday, when the flight track is on the desired easterly path, with recovery north of Stanford.

The launch will be broadcast live at http://ustre.am/RDqx or http://ustream.tv and search for K7GPS. We'll try to be on the air by 7:30 a.m. on morning of launch.

You can track the balloon's progress at this web site: http://aprs.fi/k7gps-12 (or -11). If see K7GPS-9 or K7GPS-4 on the screen, those are the two chase vehicles.

This is the flight prediction for Wednesday Feb 19th, We'll see how things work out. Tuesday looks too windy. Wednesday morning winds should be nominal. Now let's hope there's some someshine.

Molly and Brooke visited the National Weather Service Office in Great Falls to observe the procedure used when they launch balloons twice a day. At right are the two bags of chips and bag of cereal that will be lifted by our balloon, which for reference, will be 3x larger than the 500gram NWS balloon at launch.