READY FOR TAKEOFF: STARBASE Balloon Launch

On Tuesday April 23, ten students from Warrington Preparatory Academy (WPA), staff, and STARBASE instructors launched a STRATOSTAR High Altitude Balloon at 1100 hrs from Don Sutton Sports Complex in Molino.
This was a first time for the students to ever have participated in something like this and they were very excited! The balloon held experiments (payload) the students wanted to send into the atmosphere and compare to their control group.
The balloon travelled a total of 47 miles, reached a height of 103,448 ft (almost 20 miles), and the highest speed was 87.5 mph (Vertical). It eventually landed in a restricted area on Eglin AFB and was recovered by security forces.
This was a project-based activity with the cadets and was the cumulation of the in depth study of weather.