Jack Launches a Satellite

Jack joined the Tyee Middle School Satellite Club this year. Every Tuesday after school he would work with his group on their satellite - a cube about one-foot in each dimension that has a camera, measurement devices, and a lot of padding.

Then in March he went out to Ellensburg, and early on Saturday morning he launched the satellite. There was a large weather balloon filled with helium (about 10 feet tall when inflated) and then about ten satellites were attached to a wire coming down from the balloon. When the balloon is let go it rises over 100,000 feet into the sky, taking the satellites with them. This is the black of space, well above the atmosphere (airplanes fly around 30,000 feet, so it's three times as high). The kids set the camera in the satellite to take pictures at regular intervals.

Once it reaches a certain height the balloon pops and then comes down to earth (a parachute deploys so it doesn't crash down). Then the hunt is on - the satellite lets off a GPS signal, and we picked it up near Odessa, about another hour east of where it took off from. Very neat - pictures from the satellite to come!