Author: Administrator

Rain Delay for Away 121. Our PongSat/MiniCube mission is scrubbed again. The forecast is showing rain and twenty-five mph surface winds. The landing site was not looking good either, 285 km away into a pretty inaccessible mountain range. We are looking at next week for the reschedule.

Floating to Space: The Airship to Orbit Program is now on Amazon directly from the author. The book now includes bonus content. Two mission DVD’s and data sheets.

The seller is ‘Sand Brick Technologies’ the author’s company.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1894959736?m=AEUM1KJFXQIKI&ref_=v_sp_widget_detail_page

The JPA Advanced Research Facility, Area 42. It’s pretty sparse now, but watch it grow.

JPA will be at Dent:Space next week. Stop by and say Hi!

https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarting-exploration-at-dent-space

Last Sunday the Ascender 36 airship took off from our new launch facility in Northern Nevada.

The first flight of Ascender 36 was a real shake down. It took two hours more than planned to get her into the air. Instead of the forecasted calm morning, we had windy condition with the wind howling from the opposite direction. However when we got her into the air she put her nose up and screamed in to the sky. Our minimum goal was to fly to 7,000 feet. If all went well we would push bit by bit to 10,000 feet. Our goal climb rate was 400 feet per minute. In the end we climbed an average 582 feet per minute and flew all the way to 13,512 feet. We landed her 11 miles down range.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/30/arts/makoto-azuma-flower-art/index.html

We did the final inflation and system test before flight on Ascender 36. We had all plumbing installed and tested the helium transfer system. This lets us move the helium around the airship in flight.  First flight is getting close.

Did you know that PongSat is the largest student flight program in the world. 18,000 payloads flown.