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Four PSU undergraduate students in Mechanical and Materials Engineering designed and built a balloon launch system to carry an 8lb proprietary payload to an elevation over 100,000ft taking pressure, temperature, elevation, relative humidity, imaging and tracking measurements all the way (see project final report). The team had eight weeks to select, procure, design and construct the system which launched at dawn following a lightning storm near Millican Oregon, 22 miles east of Bend. The balloon reached over 116,700ft within two hours (that’s 22 miles straight up and over 99.5% out of the atmosphere). GPS contact with the balloon was lost over 60,000ft due to  a government blackout, but the balloon was in eye sight when the burst disc let go. Good thing, because the parachute must have ripped away from the payload which fell to earth within eight minutes reaching speeds over 700mph! The transmitter and payload hit the soft pumice soil of eastern Oregon at terminal velocity, 70mph! …A hard hit, but not enough to prevent the equipment from transmitting the landing position and not hard enough to destroy the proprietary payload. Wildly funny, heartbreaking, exciting, the project had it all. The launch was a total success, and all for college credit.

The first class announcement, logo, and first LaunchPSU team final report are attached below.