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Maximum Altitude 142,022 feet
Maximum Altitude 142,022 feet
On Friday 11/22/2013, we launched NSL-20 as a high altitude attempt. We were shooting for 135kft (41km).
Jet stream winds are usually high in our area in the winter, so we expected to have to wait until spring and just get by with High Power Rocketry. But we couldn't wait. There appeared to be a small window in projected winds on Friday, so we decided to give it a try. Lucas W. and Paul L. launched NSL-20 just west of Winston-Salem (This would help reduce the chance of landing in the ocean). Chris manned mission control. Tanner began chase around Raleigh and was able to stay with it until it landed.
Details: The payload was about 280g and consisted of a block of foam with a BigRedBee APRS transmitter/logger and two 808 #16 video cameras. We used a 1600g cell and H2. To prevent chute tangles with the popped balloon, we under-hung a homemade 56cm chute. This allowed us to video the balloon on the way up and the ground on the way down. It wasn't a very attractive payload, and the foam was a mess to deal with, but it weighed practically nothing.
[Paul Lowell paul _at_ ncnearspace.org]
The moon setting from around 130,000 ft
Burst of a huge cell in just four frames (30th of a second apart)
ARHAB record on 11/22/2013
Flight visualization from received APRS data
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