Author: Administrator

Working the checklist. Away 129 had 75 tasks on the checklist. It was one of our more complex high racks with 4 separate telemetry systems, 5 cameras, data logger, full array of sensors, beacon, in house and student experiments and our standard flight system set.

Final prep before launch. Now we’re down to things like foreign object removal, rigging inspection, balloon sep system power up. Then it’s the final ‘GOs’ from mission control, videographer, traffic, and balloon team.

It’s 5am on launch morning. It’s cold and dark and time for the team briefing. Meeting are actually exciting when you’re in the field and it’s 4 hours to launch.

Twenty PongSat student projects flew on Away 129.

The day before the launch the team arrived at the site and started the unpacking, assembling and laying out the launch bag.

Mission Success! Sunday we flew Away 129 to 96,806 feet. After a three day recovery effort that included 16 hours of hiking through steep canyons and mountains the team is home safe and sound.

We’re gearing up for the flight of Away 129 this weekend. This one is loaded. Two full dissimilar telemetry systems, satellite uplink, airship valve tests, MHD plasma experiments, PongSats and 3d printed structural parts flown for the first time and more. Weather is looking good and most of the gear is already delivered to the launch site.

Wish us luck!

We’ve put together a new launch apron at our Area 42 research site in Nevada.

Added a second shipping container, a twelve foot high fence and 60 yards of gravel. This gives us a 50 foot by 40 foot wind protected launch area. It will work great for balloon missions as well as the smaller airship test flights. The new container will be workshop space and mission control.

This was the idea:

Area cleared and the gravel dumped:

Drones eye view of the work in progress:

The fence is on the upwind side for morning launches.

Instant building!

The new balloon dance floor:

In the coming weeks we’ll be adding solar and outfitting the new space.