Author: Administrator

Ascender 26 was JP Aerospace’s 180th flight.

Sunday June 14th our 26 foot Ascender airship took to the sky in Northern Nevada. This vehicle is smaller than some of our other vehicles, but it is extremely important. It is a test bed for an entire new internal structure and new internal helium cell interface.  It was intended to be a short hop to 1000 feet above the ground. However everything was going so well we let her run and flew to 2585 feet above the ground (6,708 feet above sea level). We had the combination inner cell fill volumes and balance off by about six ounces and we floated tail up about twenty degrees most of the way. It slowed the climb rate a bit but didn’t detract from an excellent flight.

The Ascender is a pretty complex system with four helium inner cells, servo control vents, an outer envelope pressurization system, a carbon truss internal structure, full unlink command and tracking system and independent backup gas release systems.  The real value of this test flight was learning to deploy this complex of a system in the field. We still have goose bumps on how great the flight went. This is the vehicle that paves the way for the next generation of Ascenders to come.

Ascender 26 at 6708 feet (MSL)

Away 117 was our 180th flight. The flight carried magnetohydrodynamic experiments for the ATO project, a PongSat from Singapore and a slot machine for Soboba Casino.

The flight was a great success.  We have a challenging recovery operation. It took four hours of off road driving and a twelve hour hike/climb up and down a mountain but we got it back.

Tomorrow morning we are flying the Ascender airship and a High Rack high altitude balloon.

The balloon will be carrying student experiments, two Magnetohydrodynamic experiments for the airship to orbit program and a Slot Machine!  Wish us luck!

Here are some scene from our high altitude missions last weekend.

Away 102

Last weekend JPA took to the field for two flights to the edge of space. The two vehicles, Away 102 and Away 116 carried over 500 PongSats and Several Airship to Orbit project experiments.  Our peak altitude for the weekend was 102,296 feet.

Did I mention PongSats are the best part of my job? These are some great pictures from a proud Dad of a young PongSat scientist from Singapore. She will be flying her experiment to the edge of space on the September mission. She will no doubt be walking on Mars before too long.

Bell’s got a new paint job and we put in place the high pressure tanks for the ballast system. She look’in like she want to hit the water!

On May 10th PongSats and ATO engine experiments will be flown to 100,000 on two balloon vehicles.

This will be Away 102 and Away 116.  Away 116 will be our 178th flight.