High altitude balloon launches are unpredictable and constant teachers. On a recent launch in December 2019, we were reminded of a few key lessons. Learn from our mistakes!
In this post, join us as we launch a test payload with our planned equipment (GoPro Camera, Colbert Platform, Astronaut Ice Cream) to ensure everything will be ready for the actual Colbert launch. Come Launch with Us!
This is the story of our launch to assist The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to send Astronaut Ice Cream to near-space for the first time!
Perhaps you recognize this post's cover photo from a recent Late Show with Stephen Colbert skit: Astronaut Ice Cream is a Lie. Indeed, that skit used Launch with Us planning and flight hardware to plan for, execute, and retrieve the space ice cream payload. To make sure that we reached our objective altitude, we had to ensure that we chose the proper launch configuration. How did we do it? More about predicting altitude is below, while more details on the story of the Colbert launch itself will be coming in the next blog posts!
While your High Altitude Balloon (HAB) payload may not be as critical as an Apollo mission returning from space, it still requires careful thought and planning. It is important that you balance the trade-offs such as a safe impact speed (slower descent) with a longer descent time and travel distance (faster descent is more desirable).
Learn how in this blog post.
