Between Showers

NY Family sends Camera and iPhone into Space

Video from a camera attached to a weather balloon that rose into the upper stratosphere and recorded the blackness of space. Visit brooklynspaceprogram.org for all the info.

UPDATE: Apparently fishing just doesn’t cut it anymore.
In one of the coolest amateur science experiments NewsFeed has come across, a father-and-son team, and others from the “Brooklyn Space Program,” launched a weather balloon into the stratosphere along with an HD video camera that captured virtually the entire flight. The team placed some hand-warmers inside a specially built insulated capsule that held the camera and an iPhone, which, through its GPS capabilities, allowed the team to track it down once it landed.

The team was headed by Luke Geissbuhler and his 7-year-old son Max, who found the camera about 30 miles from the launch site in upstate New York. At its peak, the balloon reached an altitude of about 100,000 feet and battled 100-m.p.h. winds before it burst, sending the camera and iPhone hurtling back to earth at rates of 150 m.p.h. A specially designed parachute attached to the capsule eventually slowed it to about 15 m.p.h. Note to Max’s school: if there’s a science fair this year, give this guy the top prize.