In my last post I said I would update on the status of payloads and the recovery. The photo on the end of that post (also see below) showed the payloads hanging in a tree – that was all we knew thanks to Eric Wang – he snapped that photo and sent it to us to show he had found the payloads after back country skiing a total of 9 miles to get it.

He didn’t text anything more for hours because the weather was closing in, thunderstorms were forecast for later in the day, so they were in a hurry to get back.

The post mortem afterwards suggests the wiring came loose at some point so no ignition.

Watching the video frame by frame provided evidence of the rocket’s fate. In this screen shot below you can see the rocket falling away to the left just after balloon burst. The strings caught the mount during free fall and busted it loose.

Below is video of the launch from the payload’s perspective. (NOTE: you can see the launch from the ground in my last post.)

Below is the balloon burst from above the south end of Lake Tahoe just above 100,000 feet.

And here is the landing in a tree on a ridge in California near Sierra At Tahoe ski area.

I visited the classes today that designed and built the payloads. I returned their payloads and showed them the videos. There was disappointment that the rocket didn’t launch, but mostly there was excitement and questions and numerous comments about how much they’d learned in the process.

They want to be part of next year’s High Hopes Project and have a very intriguing idea for an experiment. I won’t share too many specifics, but it involves a rocket and breaking the sound barrier.

Learning is messy!