OVERVIEW

Are you interested in learning more about high-altitude ballooning? Would you like to host a launch at your school? Here, we discuss everything that goes into one of our K-12 balloon flights so that you, the educator, will know what to expect.

Each year, we solicit requests from teachers and educators to host launches at their schools or with their K-12 groups. Our balloons ascend well into the stratosphere, usually to altitudes of 90,000 ft above sea level or higher. They carry payloads equipped with cameras to record video and GPS devices to track their location during flight. Participating K-12 students are given the opportunity to create their own payloads, which also fly with the balloon.

There are four main phases to conducting a high-altitude balloon launch: (1) planning and prep, (2) pre-launch setup, (3) balloon launch and flight, and (4) payload recovery. We describe the entire process in more detail in the sections listed below.

We have also compiled all of this information (and more!) into our Educator’s Guide to High-Altitude Ballooning document, which you can access at the following link.