The weather forecast for Saturday is not looking good and the launch of FS5 will be postponed for better weather conditions. Stay tuned for an new date. The first wave of a cut-off low pressure system zeroing in on Southern California passed yesterday with a lot of needed rain. The predictions are that this system […]
The primary launch date of March 14th is looking good. There is a large and wet weather system passing through southern California for the next few days, but the predictions are for sunny weather on Saturday March 14th 9AM out in the Mojave desert launch locations. The only major concern at this point is what […]
Save the date. FS#5 is planned to launch on Saturday March 14th, 2020. If the weather conditions are not right on this date, Sunday March 22 will be the backup date. Launch time will be approximately 9AM to take advantage of calm winds at ground level. The launch will likely be in one of the […]
Its been a busy season around the Squirrel Engineering labs. But silently in the background Flying Squirrel #5 (FS5) has been taking shape. Based on a whole new radio telemetry design, FS5 is using APRS to relay data back to the ground. This has some major advantages over the HF signals sent by prior flying […]
The Squirrels support the Back To Space organization’s 1st HAB project. On Saturday Aug 10th, 2019 I had the privilege to assist the Back to Space organization launch their first High Altitude Balloon. Back to Space is an organization that is promoting space related STEM education. They currently have 22 very talented “Ambassadors” participating in […]
One of the goals of the Flying Squirrel #4 (FS4) mission was to stay warm. Prior Flying Squirrel flights either froze to death or appeared likely to do so had another failure not terminated the flight early. For FS4, our Squirrel carried it’s own personal heating blanket to keep warm in the sub-zero temperatures. […]
The Flying Squirrel #4 High Altitude Balloon took flight on June 17th, 2019 10:09Am PDT. This movie visualizes the GPS data collected on the flight via a radio link using FT8 telemetry protocol. Flying Squirrel #4 flew to an altitude of 83,936 feet before the balloon burst. Some data was lost during the drop due […]
FS4 launched at 10:09am PDT into light winds. The flight followed the predicted route very closely, however the balloon burst at 83,936 feet altitude. The prediction was for 100,000 feet. Had the balloon reached the predicted altitude it would have followed the route closely to the end. When the balloon burst, it was over the […]
It looks like we will have very good flying weather. The prediction has remained about the same as prior runs and the surface winds at the time launch time 10AM PDT are light. Its a good day to fly! 73s de Don KJ6FO Please follow and like us:
Today’s prediction is more of the same. And that is good news! All systems “GO” for launch tomorrow morning. I will do one last check early tomorrow, but usually there is little change in predictions this close to launch day. Stay Tuned.. 73s de Don KJ6FO Please follow and like us:
