On the weekend of April 16th, 6 Citadel Cadets and 3 Faculty members participated in the 2010 NASA Space Grant Consortium Balloon Launch. This immersed students in a "hands on" learning experience while working on NASA-related research with Citadel faculty mentors. The program’s purpose was to provide students across South Carolina the opportunity to Design—Build—Fly science and engineering experiments in a nearspace environment. We applied to build an experiment to fit into a 6-inch by 6-inch pod for flight on a high altitude balloon. The student/faculty team had the thrilling opportunity to launch the high altitude weather balloon to the outer edge of the earth's atmosphere. The student/faculty teams were also be a part of the tracking team following the balloon's progress and the descent of the payload before recovering it to retrieve data.

  The goal of the Citadel's physics team was to use CCD chips (such as those found in digital cameras) to gather information about cosmic radiation in the upper atmosphere; this was a continuation of the exciting 2009 project. This launch occured on Saturday afternoon, with  a good effort given for the attempt to recover the payload. The Team is still awaiting the recovery our payload to start the analysis of data. We want to wish all the project team members our thanks for their diligence in the design and execution of this project; student members included Freshman Cadets Benjamin Hall, John Holl, and Djordan Porter; our particpating Sophomore Cadet was Matthew May; Junior Cadets included Andrew Carnes and Erik Pratt. Faculty members included Dr. Joel Berlinghieri, Dr. Russell Hilleke, Dr. Luke Sollitt, and Erik Rooman. 

NASA Space Grant Balloon Launch Pictures

NASA Space Grant Balloon Flight Pictures

Watch the Video of the Launch