Enjoy!
NSP Flight 4 Video
Monday, March 5, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
NSP Flight 4: Unprecedented and Unpredictable
NSP in its fourth flight reached an incredible and unexpected altitude of 145,462ft AGL or 146,962ft ASL this past Monday the 23rd of January! For this launch we used an 800g weather balloon spec'd for roughly 92,000ft and maintained all other aspects of the payload according to Flight 3.
Flight/Trajectory predictions for this launch were calculated based on a maximum altitude of 100,000ft which itself was quite optimistic. Ascent rate data from the flight computer suggests that the balloon was significantly under-inflated. Flight 3 achieved an average ascent rate of 1245 ft/min to apogee of ~75kft, whereas Flight 4 averaged 1033 ft/min up to 75kft. The large error in the predicted apogee can be attributed to the extra volume given for expansion.
Touchdown occurred at T+2.5 hours in an abandoned oil field near Taft, CA about 84 miles downrange of the launch site. Photos after the jump..
Flight/Trajectory predictions for this launch were calculated based on a maximum altitude of 100,000ft which itself was quite optimistic. Ascent rate data from the flight computer suggests that the balloon was significantly under-inflated. Flight 3 achieved an average ascent rate of 1245 ft/min to apogee of ~75kft, whereas Flight 4 averaged 1033 ft/min up to 75kft. The large error in the predicted apogee can be attributed to the extra volume given for expansion.
Touchdown occurred at T+2.5 hours in an abandoned oil field near Taft, CA about 84 miles downrange of the launch site. Photos after the jump..
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