BASE 16 Flight: 2007 October 10

Launch: Honey Creek Middle School , Terre Haute, Indiana 12:30 UTC

Burst Altitude: 99,400 feet at 14:05 UTC Altitude versus Time plot     Flight path (.jpg) Google Earth (.kml) file

Landing: Hoosier National Forest (southwest corner of Brown County) at 14:21 UTC

The launch was very smooth. During descent, at 68,000 feet, the cords connecting the command pod to the parachute broke (within 13 seconds of each other). The command pod fell to the landing point in about 11 minutes, averaging 70 miles per hour during the fall. The cosmic ray telescope and food pod have not been located. The temperature data was successfully relayed to ground in flight (All temperatures versus altitude)

A DXG-506V camera recorded video of the entire flight. The camera was pointed upward toward the lift balloon. The rapid tumbling (approximately 30 revolutions per minute) of the command pod is illustrated by the three photos taken in the last two seconds of flight. Assorted video and still images are available at these links:

Photos (.jpg):     Helium balloon (at launch) burst sequence (pictures separated by 0.033 sec) 1 2 3 4         

1.8 seconds before landing                     0.5 seconds before landing          Impact in weeds

Videos (.wmv):     Launch         Red balloon burst         Blue balloon burst

            Pink balloon burst     Yellow balloon burst     Helium balloon burst

            Lost parachute             Landing