JP Aerospace Blog

Author: Administrator

  • Away 75 Launch

    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

    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.

  • Away 75 a Success!

    We flew to just over 96,000 feet. It was cold and windy and we landed  far down range. It was a great mission, the vehicle has been recovered and we ‘re on our way home.

  • JPA Rolling to the Desert

    We are rolling for the desert for Away 75. I think this is our 145th mission. Away 75 is a high altitude balloon mission. We are carrying 32 separate payloads (ten are PongSats),six HD cameras and a twenty foot camera boom. This is a single vehicle run with just a small crew. It will be relaxing after the mega missions of the past two years.

    Wish us luck!

  • JPA on the NBC Evening News

    Tonight we will be on the NBC Evening News with Brian Williams!
    It’s all about PongSats. Students making PongSats, Us flying PongSats, kids opening PongSats to see what happened.

    There should be some great in flight video too.

    UPDATE: We got bumped. As soon as I know when it’s rescheduled for I’ll let you know.

  • The Lenovo Piece is Out!

    [wp_youtube]4oMDBFfmoT8[/wp_youtube]

  • The Fall from the Light Bulbs Point of View

  • The Drop

    Here a clip from “Richard Hammond’s Miracles of Nature” that shows our canister falling from the edge of space, from the camera’s point of view.

    [wp_youtube]Pv1iOD7yui4[/wp_youtube]

    Note: The clips have been pulled from youtube but the entire episode is now up.

  • The Moment of Truth

    The opening of the light bulb container.

    [wp_youtube]KU078v-dBzk[/wp_youtube]

    We got game.

  • JPA with Top Gear’s Richard Hammond

    Last April we dropped at light bulb from the edge of space for a BBC documentary with Richard Hammond (the ‘Top Gear’ show guy). It was top secret so we haven’t posted anything about the mission. However, I just got a bunch of e-mails about the show. It played Tuesday night on the BBC in England. I haven’t seen it yet, but they’ve posted a clip on you tube.

    [wp_youtube]XZlp3SVEMDg[/wp_youtube]