Space cowboy: Teen sends balloon into orbit
THE Darling Downs has its very own space cowboy.
Cecil Plains 17-year-old Jonah Scott recorded amazing video after his high altitude balloon reached near space.
His balloon floated 33.8 km above the Earth.
Soon after the launch Mr Scott lost contact with the balloon due to a malfunction with the tracking system.
That was the last he heard from it until five weeks later when a farmer rang up and said he had found it in his paddock in Nobby.
Everything was recovered without damage and Mr Scott was pleased to watch what had been recorded
The spectacular footage was taken above where commercial airliners fly but below orbiting satellites.
The balloon was launched on August 21 at Cecil Plains and flew for 125 minutes before it burst and spiralled back to Earth.
The balloon weighed 1 kg and carried a 1.1 kg payload including Gopro Black 3+ and Panasonic GF2 cameras.
Mr Scott constructed the balloon after becoming interested in astrophotography.
He launched the balloon to take images of the Earth and the air layer that we breathe.
In a previous launch Mr Scott had used hydrogen to achieve lift but he decided to use helium this time for more control.
He has released a video of the flight on YouTube entitled Balloon Flight to Near Space Over the Darling Downs.
The balloon's journey
- 16 minutes - 4,300m
- 30 minutes - 8,100m
- 60 minutes - 16,250m
- 120 minutes - 32,500m
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