Project Horus High altitude balloon project

Horus 15.5

Technical information:

Launch date 20/08/2011 09:30 UTC
Landing date 20/08/2011 14:30 UTC
Flight duration ~5 hours
Launch site 52.21349, 0.10072
Landing site Last known position: 52.99105, 1.24042 2562 m altitude
Flight path Web,В KMZ
Distance travelled 116 km
Maximum altitude 40,575 m
Average ascent rate 3.5 m/s
Impact speed 10 m/s
Video camera None
Flight computer MiniNut 1.0 flight computer
GPS module Falcom FSA03
Radio transmitter Radiometrix NTX2 10mw
Telemetry 300 baud RTTY, CRC16 checksum
Tracking Ground stations (distributed listener), web based tracker

Details:

Horus 15.5 was launched from Cambridge in the UK, in partnership with the Cambridge University Space-FlightВ crew. It was partially a test of the MiniNut payloads (Stage 1 in the NutВ miniaturizationВ program), and partially an attempt at the amateur world altitude record. It was a great success, reaching 40.575km altitude, breaking the UK amateur altitude record, and coming within 600m of the world amateur altitude record!

A complete writeup of the Horus 15.5 launch can be found on Mark's blog, here.