ASTRO-15
Post-Flight Summary
Flight info:
Peak Altitude: 100,013 ft.
Top speed: 72mph at 63,973 ft.
Straight-line distance: 45.2 miles
Satellite View of Landing Location
Recovery Team:
Andy Arena OSU Professor, MAE
Joe Conner OSU PhD Student, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Seong-Jin Lee OSU PhD Student, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Harry Mueller Oklahoma Research Balloons, Tulsa, OK
David Grismore OSU MAE Undergraduate Student
Flight Data
ASTRO team preparing payloads, tracking, and recovery equipment for flight.
Chain of student payloads ready for flight.
Seong-Jin Lee holding high-altitude weather balloon while it fills with helium.
Students holding their payloads ready for launch.
Weather balloon and payloads in flight just after launch
Picture of weather balloon at 100,000 feet, just before cut-down (taken during payload tracking) - 11:02am
ASTRO Recovery Team begins 2-mile hike toward payload landing location - 12:51pm
Seong-Jin Lee and David Grismore follow property owner towards payload landing location.
Seong-Jin Lee leads the way along an old ATV path - 1:22pm
ASTRO team arrives at payload landing location - discovers payload caught in trees (notice orange in tops of center trees) - 1:34pm
ASTRO team deliberates how to recover payloads from treetops - 1:35pm
Close-up of student payloads caught in treetops.
David Grismore and Seong-Jin Lee attempt to pull student payloads out of treetops - 2:53pm
All of the payloads and tracking gear that were recovered (5 payloads were unrecoverable) - 3:32pm
ASTRO Recovery Team riding in the back of Harry Mueller's Jeep on return trip from payload landing destination - 4:43pm
Picture taken from student payload shortly after launch at an altitude of approximately 1200 feet.
Picture taken from student payload at an altitude of approximately 20,000 feet.
Picture taken from student payload at an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet.
Picture taken from student payload at an altitude of approximately 75,000 feet.
Picture taken from student payload at an altitude of approximately 93,000 feet.
Picture taken from student payload at an altitude of approximately 100,000 feet, just after cut-down.
Picture of trees payloads landed in - taken from student payload at an altitude of approximately 200 feet.
Picture taken by student payload in landing location in a tree.