DescentBB

A hacker space from Louisville, KY is launching an unmanned balloon this evening from Space Port Indiana in Columbus, IN. The goal is for the balloon to reach Africa in 2-3 days. Here are some links if you want to follow the flight:

Primary Site: http://whitestarballoon.com/
Twitter Sites: http://twitter.com/whitestarball and http://twitter.com/LVL1WhiteStar
Tracking Page: http://track.whitestarballoon.com/
Audio/Video Steam List Page: http://wiki.whitestarballoon.com/doku.php?id=streaming

The launch team left Louisville, KY at 9:00 PM EDT (0100 UTC), and launch will take place (barring difficulties) probably between 11:00PM-12:00 Midnight EDT (0300-0400 UTC).

Also, Project Blue Horizon, a Lockheed-Martin sponsored program at Columbia University will be making a similar attempt in the coming weeks. Follow them here:

http://twitter.com/pbh5
http://www.projectbluehorizon.com/


***Update***: Launch was scrubbed at about 12:20 AM EDT. Don't know when they will try again, but stay tuned.

Although it still isn't clear whether White Star will make another launch attempt this season, Project Blue Horizon is mobilizing for their final flight of the season tonight. Check out the PBH links above for more information. Unfortunately for PBH, high altitude winds are now out of the east, so the balloon will be making a westerly transcontinental flight rather than a Trans-Atlantic attempt.

One of the transmitters on the balloon will use an Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) transmitter to send position and altitude information to amateur radio ground stations, and you can see the balloon's position using this link once the APRS transmitter is activated at the launch site tonight (the balloon shows a test position from 21 April at the moment):

http://aprs.fi/?call=KC2ZJH

You can also watch the balloon's track on the PBH site (see first post above).