Unmanned Trans-Atlantic Balloon Flight Attempt

akula65

Rear Admiral
A hacker space from Louisville, KY is launching an unmanned balloon this evening from Space Port Indiana in Columbus, IN. The goal is for the balloon to reach Africa in 2-3 days. Here are some links if you want to follow the flight:

Primary Site: http://whitestarballoon.com/
Twitter Sites: http://twitter.com/whitestarball and http://twitter.com/LVL1WhiteStar
Tracking Page: http://track.whitestarballoon.com/
Audio/Video Steam List Page: http://wiki.whitestarballoon.com/doku.php?id=streaming

The launch team left Louisville, KY at 9:00 PM EDT (0100 UTC), and launch will take place (barring difficulties) probably between 11:00PM-12:00 Midnight EDT (0300-0400 UTC).

Also, Project Blue Horizon, a Lockheed-Martin sponsored program at Columbia University will be making a similar attempt in the coming weeks. Follow them here:

http://twitter.com/pbh5
http://www.projectbluehorizon.com/
 
***Update*** Launch was scrubbed for a number of technical issues at about 12:20 AM EDT. Further launch attempts to come on later dates.
 
Quite a project. It seems to be very tech-driven in my opinion, with little detail given for meteological planning (how should that balloon reach the westerlies when launched in Indiana? Chances are good that it'll get caught up up in the trade winds, and gets swept west..).
Also I'd like to see the reaction of Northern African air traffic controllers when that thing shows up. The little "I'm harmless" flag is rather cute though. Looks like good geeky fun.
 
Although it still isn't clear whether White Star will make another launch attempt this season, Project Blue Horizon is mobilizing for their final flight of the season tonight. Check out the PBH links above for more information. Unfortunately for PBH, high altitude winds are now out of the east, so the balloon will be making a westerly transcontinental flight rather than a Trans-Atlantic attempt.

One of the transmitters on the balloon will use an Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) transmitter to send position and altitude information to amateur radio ground stations, and you can see the balloon's position using this link once the APRS transmitter is activated at the launch site tonight (the balloon shows a test position from 21 April at the moment):

http://aprs.fi/?call=KC2ZJH

You can also watch the balloon's track on the PBH site (see first post above).
 
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