Topic: =/\= amateur father and son team launch craft into space

[stoneyface]

after being told that NASA was not going to document their project they decided to do it themselves. (good for them!)

they launched a 19" weather balloon with a payload if a gps unit and an iphone and amazingly it landed only 30 miles away! after reaching almost 19 miles up, it fell back to earth with a parachute assist to preserve the payload and was easily retrieved. they even have a movie to prove it congrats to them!

http://gothamist.com/2010/10/02/video_spacecraft_launched_from_newb.php

couple movies both textless and regular also hosted here: http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-spacecraft-orbit,0,4080505.story

[Capt_Bearslayer_XC]

*sigh*

NASA must have been too busy making amends to Islam...

It really is time to dissolve a majority of NASA's functions and make them more of a FAA type of organization.

[knightstorm]

19 Miles up is space?

[Tus-XC]

no, 100km (~62 miles) is the commonly accepted boundry for space. 

[marstone]

I do have to agree with NASA on this one.  A weather balloon launch in not very worthy.  It is a cool project to do, but nothing new being tested out.  These are done all the time.

[knightstorm]

Good point Marstone.  Actually the balloon accomplishes less than what's done all the time.  It wasn't carrying any instrumentation other than a camera and GPS.  It would be a fun project, but I have to wonder why the article sensationalized it.

[Brush Wolf]

Good point Marstone.  Actually the balloon accomplishes less than what's done all the time.  It wasn't carrying any instrumentation other than a camera and GPS.  It would be a fun project, but I have to wonder why the article sensationalized it.

Slow news day and a shot at NASA (and Washington) for being almost completely out of the space business.

[stoneyface]

i would guess because it was completely amateur done project