Project Horus Skipping Girl Vinegar
To celebrate the launch of their album 'Keep Calm, Carry the Monkey', Melbourne indie band Skipping Girl Vinegar have teamed up with Project Horus to launch a hobo monkey into space.
In the coming weeks, we'll be launching SGV's hobo monkey 'Baker' into near space, along with selected messages from fans and band members alike.
For more details follow SGV on Facebook or stay tuned to the Project Horus blog. 
Horus 17 successfully recovered
Despite a lower burst altitude than expected, Horus 17 was a successful test of a pico payload.
The payload was recovered shortly after landing near Mannum. Many thanks to those who helped out with tracking and came out today!
Update:В The writeup for Horus 17 is online.
Pico Launch October 16th, 2011
Unfortunately, predictions for a 35km altitude launch on Sunday would have us landing within the Adelaide metropolitan area (not a good idea!), so we've scrubbed the 4-balloon launch.
Instead we'll be trying a pico launch, with an expected maximum altitude of 20km. The new MicroNut boards allow the creation of these tiny payloads, weighing in at just under 50 grams. The decrease in weight comes at a cost - less insulation. We aim to find out how the MicroNut boards cope with the extremely low temperatures around the tropopause - about -50 degrees C.
We expect to be launching around 10AM CDT on Sunday morning. Any and all help with tracking would be greatly appreciated!
Update: We will be using a 434.075MHzВ telemetry transmitter. Be aware that the frequency will drift quite significantly due to the low temperatures.
Weekend of launches October 16th, 2011
October 15-16 this year sees the 54th international Scout JOTAВ event taking place.
To coincide with this event, we'd planned a weekend of 4 launches, including high definition video & amateur radio repeaters. The payloads are built, the cars & teams are ready, but at the last minute it looks as though the weather is going to stop us from launching. 
There's still a possibility that we may get a launch off the ground if the weather improves, but it looks unlikely that we'll be able to launch the 4 balloons we'd hoped for.