Away 75 On Parachute at 60,000 feet

December 13th, 2012

NBC PongSat Story Online

December 12th, 2012

They did a wonderful job. Check it out:

http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/11/15848691-learn-more-about-jp-aerospace?lite

The Romance of Space

December 11th, 2012

Last September we were honored to fly wedding rings for our friend Kota Takaichi. He has made an incredible and moving video about the project. You gotta watch it!

NBC News Tonight (Hopefully!)

December 11th, 2012

I just got word we’re scheduled to be on the NBC Evening News with Brian Williams tonight. We got bumped last time. Everybody hope for a quite news day!

Lots of PongSats. Students making PongSats, JPA playing at the edge of space, kids opening PongSats to see what happened. There should be some great in flight video too.

Tell everybody you know. I think it’s going to happen this time. :)

Away 75 Landing Site Self Portrait

December 10th, 2012

Away 75 Launch

December 10th, 2012

The boom made it a bit tricky. We really didn’t launch in overcast. It was just hazy and the camera doesn’t see through it.

Clean Getaway

December 10th, 2012

One of the things we need to do every flight is determine the length of the balloon rigging. The longer the rigging the harder it is to launch esp. in the wind. However a short rigging means the platform can get tangled in balloon debris. This can foul the parachute. The balloon danger area is different each time depending on the fill volume of the balloon. We had a camera pointed at the balloon/vehicle interface on this flight. I think we got it right.