NSL-30

On 9/21/2014, we launched out of Durham using a new payload design by Kory. We made it to 114888 ft with a 600g balloon.

Launch crew prepping in Durham.

Note the water bottle dangling from the balloon; this is a common rig to estimate the desired 'neck lift' so that the balloon ascends at a particular desired rate (in this case 956g neck lift for a 685g payload mass).

We were able to watch this flight land! Its red chute and foil radar reflector were quite visible within 900m. Above is a still from one of the on-board cameras showing our chase truck.

The AP510 tracker with high altitude mod worked well for the entire flight ! There are still some firmware tweaks needed for its on-board temperature sensor, but I think this product is now ready for the HAB use.

Our reliable bee tracker, though was sporadic. Perhaps an issue with a right-angle SMA connector -- more testing is required.

Thank you to James and his nephew who assisted us in retrieving the payload from a tree !!