We are 14 hours away from launch and all systems are go! Thanks to our head engineer, Fred Bruenjes, we have a projection of what the flight will look like tomorrow. Launching from the CAPS facility at 11AM, the balloon will travel south-southeast and reach apogee 12-15 miles away. The balloon payload will then return to the ground approximately 25-30 miles from our launch site. The map below shows the projected flight path and the image from Google Earth is a simulation of what the Kansas City area will look like from 100,000 feet up at the projected location of apogee. Now imagine that image with a 180 degree field of view and projected on a 60 foot dome…
Projected flight based upon Thursday's wind data.
A Google Earth simulation of Kansas City seen by the Ascent balloon from 100,000 feet.