Holton joins Jackson Heights students for balloon launch
Fifth-grade students in the Holton and Jackson Heights school districts watched a latex weather balloon lift off on Tuesday morning from the track at the Jackson Heights High School football stadium.
About two hours later, a chase team from Jackson Heights, led by district technology director Vern Andrews, watched the balloon’s payload come down in a pasture southwest of McLouth after its ascent toward the edge of outer space, more than 18 miles up in the sky.
“The official record onboard says 95,314 feet,” Andrews said. “We expected it to go about 94,000 feet, so it was close.”
Tuesday’s balloon launch marked the fourth time in five years that Andrews and Heights tech support Henry “Huck” Keithline sent up a weather balloon in what Andrews refers to as a “near space exploration” — a “hands-on learning activity” that encouraged students to ask scientific questions about what might happen in certain high-altitude situations.
Andrews said both schools were using the flight to take aerial photos of the earth and to take video of a marshmallow to show changes in air pressure, and as well as getting a video of seeds to see if their growth is affected by altitude.
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