Interns to the edge of space

I know when I read this I was thinking about a couple of interns that I wanted to send to the edge of space but this is a project that some Microsoft interns are doing where they are sending up a device to the edge of space and you can catch the live cam here:

http://www.gonimb.us/

Write up here:

http://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2014/08/08/stratospheric-microsoft-interns-to-launch-balloon-to-edge-of-space-saturday-and-want-you-to-participate/

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They are now airborne.

The video isn’t working that well. I guess altitude changes everything.

There is no better instructor then a launch button, the trick is to learn the lessons before you press it as once its in the air, what you got is what you are committed to, but even then these guys are getting a heck of a education, good on Microsoft for enabling them.

I will be very interested in reading their write up of the project as I’m curious about their estimating and testing.

Master Chief is going to bail from 13,000+ feet??? I wonder if they mentioned that to the FAA.

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Video is back but it looks like they are going for a Master Chief bombing run of (of all places) George Washington (not really as I’d guess they will be passing west of there) and on their way to Canada.

Getting ready to drop the Chief.

been having more and more video breaks as (I assume) getting higher. Is the ALT and Lat/Long updating on your webpage ?

I don’t think the altitude location data is updating at all on their site. I’ve been asking for altitude location and temp but so far all I’ve got is they launched from Wild Horse Monument in Vantage, WA and at 47.01255, long -119.93512 they were about 7,000 feet but was like an hour ago and recently they mentioned they were at 13,000 feet.

I actually wondered if the irrigation circles were getting bigger at one stage there - I have no idea how long it actually takes to get to altitude like many of the other balloon launches you see, to know if this is going slow, fast, or normal.

Given the temp there is like 36C on the ground I’m betting the ascent is a little slower then they would like. I’ve been trying to get a fix as to where they are via landmarks but its been a tad difficult with the feed jumping like it has been. I think I can see Moses Lake off in the distance so I’m wondering if they are around Quincy and if they are heading north they are going to have a heck of a time getting reception as there aren’t a lot of roads in that area.

video gone - apparently they’re still getting telemetry and were over 30k feet.

Hopefully the GoPro is recording everything so it should be an interesting flight. I was worried they were heading north by northeast but looking at the picture they tweeted they were heading east pretty much down the #90 so something must have broke as the chase vehicle should be in easy range to get a feed.

Clearly their video system is analogue. I hope they get the video sorted out for the next iteration. Would have been very nice to put up a screen and watch the accent all evening.