Sign in / up

back to article Amateur balloonists conquer Atlantic

A group of US balloonists have achieved the first amateur transatlantic meteorological balloon crossing, with an epic three-day flight from California to the Mediterranean. The California Near Space Project (CNSP) unleashed four balloons from Silicon Valley on Sunday night. Two were standard high-altitude attempts, which burst …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. dotdavid
    Unhappy

    Transmitter

    Wonder how feasible it would have been to power the transmitter using solar power. Would be a shame if it conked out before the balloon comes down.

    0 0
  2. Anthony Stirk
    Stop

    Burst

    It burst earlier this morning and splashed down in the Med shortly before 09:50. Good effort to all involved and especially the APRS operators in the Azores without whom we'd have probably lost it.

    0 0
  3. NikT
    Go

    I hate to be a Party Pooper, but the last signal was at 9:46, at which point the baloon was at 11,000' descending at around 4000' per minute. With locations coming in every two minutes, it's likely that the battery failed due to a sudden ingress of salt water a good few hours before this story was published.

    0 0

  4. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bit slow off the mark eh? - article posted 12:42, the balloon had been in the water for nearly three hours by then.

    0 0
  6. ian 22

    Final destination, Iran!

    Where it will be displayed, worse for wear, beside the famous drone.

    0 0
  7. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Happy

    Looking good at the moment.

    I take my hat of to the guys.

    0 0
  8. SteveD

    Well done

    The tracker used on this flight was the same type as used on the PARIS Balloon a Bigredbee BLGPS 2M HP. A lot of people in the Azores, Spain and Portugal switched APRS frequency to help track the balloon.

    Steve

    G6UIM

    0 0
  9. don2325
    Thumb Up

    record breaking flight

    Well done Ron and the rest of the team at CNSP. The last location message indicated that the balloon went down in the Med just off the coast of Algeria. To see the entire record breaking flight copy this link into your browser: http://aprs.fi/?call=K6RPT-11&mt=roadmap&z=5&timerange=259200&_s=ss_call.

    That said I followed the flight from early on since the first touchdown predictions had both -11 and -12 landing near where I live in Colorado Springs CO USA and after less than 24 hours in the air. Little did those following the flight know that we would be grabbing the smartphone or old PDA to check on the status of the flights at all hours for not 24 hours but over 54 hours. Its been a hoot. Thanks also go to all of the Amateur Radio operators that listened to the balloons and provided the APRS data to the rest of us.

    1 0
  10. Notas Badoff
    Coat

    Knock on wood step forgotten

    Dropped 85000 feet in 24 minutes. Last reported at 14500 ft at 09:46Z. None following.

    0 0
  11. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Maybe this balloon can come down in Iran....

    And join the stealth drone in the mullah's captured armory!

    0 0
  12. Mike Manes

    CNSP record-busting balloon flight

    I've been doing this amateur radio balloonacy for over 20 years out here in Colorado, and I must admit that of the 160+ flights that I've personally participated in, this one by CNSP this one is the most memorable. What boggles the mind the most is this Chinese-made latex balloon tolerated over 2 full days of intense solar UV flux at over 30 km altitude, defying conventional wisdom that it would last less than 12 hours up there. In fact, that assumption is what drove the original landing forecast. That robustness coupled with a "sweet spot" Helium fill before launch get the credit for this awesome adventure.

    Kudos to Ron K6RPT and the CNSP team for blowing away the prior records for unmanned amateur balloon flight duration and distance and setting some really challengingly high bars for the rest of us in this avocation.

    Mike Manes, CTO, Edge of Space Sciences www.eoss.org

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.