| High
Altitude Balloon Launch - May 2008
Yes, we have video! Inflation
(the good kind) and launch (22MB)
A recent posting to QRP-L by Jim Giammanco
N5IB of an upcoming high-altitude balloon launch had me wondering
if there might  be
a need for recovery team help and/or interested observers. A
quick exchange of emails later, I was loading my truck with
camera and binoculars.
I arrived at the launch site, NASA's Columbia
Scientific Balloon Facility, near Palestine, Texas bright and
early Tuesday morning (May 20) and met Jim and several other
professors from the participating universities. Preparations
for the launches were well underway but Jim took time to give
me a tour of the event and explained the students' various experiments
to me.
There were to be two balloon launches with
each balloon consisting of a payload of several individual experiments
designed by the students. Also going aloft with the experiments
would be a 445.950 MHz simplex repeater and an FM Morse beacon
on 445.975 MHz.
 From
the preparation, launch and recovery it was obvious these guys
had done this before. We split into two groups for the recovery
with each group going after one of the balloons. At least one
vehicle in each group was able to receive the APRS position
data from its assigned balloon. After climbing for over an hour
and reaching around 97,000 feet, a receiver on each balloon
was sent a command that cut the balloon away from the payload
by energizing a nichrome wire that heated up and caused the
balloon cord to melt, separating it from the payload and parachute.
The payloads then descended for 36 minutes back to Earth.
The balloon team I was assigned to tracked
the payload all the way to the ground with APRS reports indicating
its position to be on private property (a hunting club) two
miles from the nearest paved road. The group's leader made numerous
attempts to contact the owner, all to no avail, but a call to
the Anderson County sheriff's department and help was on the
way in the form of a Constable straight out of Lonesome Dove.
No Glock or Baretta 9mm for this guy - he had a pearl-handled
.45 revolver, an easy-going manner and friendly and patient
disposition, eager to help us recover the payload. He knew who
to call to gain us permission to the property and escorted us
two miles in over dirt and sand roads where the audio beacon
on the payload was chirping its heart out 60 feet up in a pine
tree.
Calls on 2 meters informed the other group
and soon almost everyone was there to assist in liberating the
payload from the pines. I drove out to the main road at that
point to get within 2m range of some of the others to talk them
in to the location. After meeting them at the road, I left for
the day, happy to have met such a good group of people.
Throughout the day, I was constantly impressed
with the enthusiasm of the students and the dedication of their
professors in enabling some hands-on, real-world engineering
experiences for them.
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