Mission summary by Ethan Jones ‘24
On June 24th, Bellarmine Aerospace, a branch of the Maker Lab, launched a high-altitude payload to a stratospheric altitude of 70,000ft (13miles), double the typical height of an airliner, in their first ever balloon flight. After months of development, cooperation, and learning, they completed their goals for the project and launched it from San Luis Reservoir. The launch was a complete success, with everything from the hydrogen filling process to the payload installation going well. After the flight, however, communications were not reestablished with the onboard GPS system until a day later, when it sent out a location ping. This allowed the team to locate the landed payload and collect it, finally bringing it back to Bellarmine. This was a very fortunate event, as the payload landed upside down, initially restricting its ability to communicate. While it was flying, the stratospheric payload captured the grand vistas of the California Central Valley as well as the characteristic black sky of the stratosphere, all while braving temperatures below -45C and near-vacuum conditions. The group hopes to use this event to aid their future projects, establishing a build-off point for their next flights, which aim to go more in-depth with their analysis of the atmosphere. This flight is a first for the school, with no other internal organization launching anything to the edge of space before the Bellarmine Aerospace team.
Development & Launch Team
- Ethan Jones ‘24
- Diego Plascencia ‘23
- Roy Chen ‘25
- Noah Liu ‘25
- Samskrith Raghav ‘25
- Samik Thusoo ‘25
- Devansh Shah ‘25
- Ashrith Joijoide ‘26
Additional Development Team
- Jacob Wiens ‘23
- Mehtab Singh ‘24
- Akshay Irudayaraj ‘25
- Sam Van Last ‘25
- Aidan Cinarkaya ‘26
- Ian Na ‘26