Watch Midwest School Launch a Balloon 100,000 Feet Over Wyoming
We always encourage our Wyoming students to aim high. Midwest School took that direction literally a few months ago when they launched a high-altitude balloon nearly 100,000 feet over Wyoming.
I'm not sure how I missed this, but this launch from Midwest School happened back in February. That's probably why Wyoming looks so white from way up there. It's a relatively short video, but shows the progress of the balloon from when it was on the ground to the point where it reached up to over 99,000 feet.
Getting an object to this height is no small feet. That means this balloon went above the stratosphere into the mesosphere. I had to look this up on the NASA website to make sure I was remembering this right. As they document, the stratosphere is where our ozone layer exists that protects us from the sun's UV rays. The mesosphere is where meteors burn up that hit our atmosphere.
Overlook Horizon has instructions on how you could hypothetically do that yourself, but keep in mind that there are understandably some safety regulations Here are a couple:
Any on-board cellular (phone) tracking systems must be turned off (Airplane mode enabled) as it leaves the ground.
Any individual payload box/package must weigh less than 6 pounds.
If you ever get serious about this, make sure you check out all the rules for your own safety and that of others.
Congrats to Midwest School for aiming for the stars - literally.