A collection of stuff about HacDC's near space initiatives, including the Hackerspaces In Space Contest entry (2010).

Current Status

Spaceblimp 5 launched July 9, 2011

About the HacDC Spaceblimp Project

On Aug 7, 2010, we launched our first balloon: HacDC Spaceblimp 1. Its epic journey began well enough, but the antenna came loose somewhere around 60,000 ft and we never heard from it again. Until three months later, when a farmer found it in her field, called up a friend (who happened to be an engineer) and it came back home. The pictures are fantastic, but the telemetry data was lost -- it overwrote itself many times over before the batteries finally gave up.

Following (what we thought was) the loss of Spaceblimp-1, we scrambled and launched HacDC Spaceblimp 2 on Aug 21. It went flawlessly -- fast, light, and with good radio contact the whole way through. It may be the third fastest-ascending amateur radio balloon. We were disqualified from the Hackerspaces in Space competition because we went over budget, but they said we would have come in fourth if not. Sigh. But again, it was an inspiring success.

HacDC Spaceblimp 3 was successfully launched and retrieved on 13 Nov 2010 with a much more involved payload than previous versions. More cameras, HD video, more radios, an accelerometer, geiger counter, pressure sensor. Weight and price weren't constraints this time.

HacDC Spaceblimp 4 set the HacDC altitude record, topping out at 103,764 ft! This flight got fantastic video -- make sure to check out the two youtube links.

Insatiable and unstoppable, the HacDC team puts up HacDC Spaceblimp 5 on July 9, 2011. We bought a yet-bigger balloon to try to get higher, and so: 118,533 ft!

If you want to get involved or learn more or contribute to the program...Subscribe to the Spaceblimp email list

GPS visualizations of balloon trajectory from the Flickr Group (made with GPS Visualizer http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/):

HacDC Spaceblimp Project:
Main Page	Press Page	First Launch (Found)	Second Launch (Successful)
Third Launch (Successful)	Fourth Launch (Successful)	Fifth Launch (3% short of goal)	Sixth Launch (Successful)	Seventh Launch (Successful)

HacDC Spaceblimp Team Contact Info:
[email protected]
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