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Launch PSU (LPSU), the balloon satellite team lead by mechanical engineering Professor Mark Weislogel, of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, had another successful launch and recovery on August 18, 2006. The photo at right shows the chase team watching the balloon as it ascended to over 114,000 feet.

Payloads on the balloon contained temperature and pressure sensors and cameras. The image below was taken by a digital camera when the balloon was near its maximum altitude. Notice that the curvature of the earth is visible at the boundary between the outer atmosphere and the blackness of space. If you look at the enlarged image you will be able to see Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams at the edge of the cloud layer.

The LPSU team worked with a group of students attending an OMSI summer camp at the Hancock Field Station. Thanks go to Jim Todd and the OMSI camp crew for building payloads, hosting the launch, and helping with the recovery.

The launch and recovery went especially well. Donovan Finnestead designed a mechanism to guarantee that balloons are filled with the correct amount of helium for the payloads. This seemingly simple task is hard to control manually—especially at 6:00 a.m. in the desert. The winds aloft were calm so the balloon landed only 7.5 miles from the launch site, despite traveling over 21 vertical miles (one way) to the edge of the atmosphere.

LPSU was funded in part by the Oregon Space Grant Consortium. For more information, please visit the LPSU Web site.

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