Mission: | A sunrise launch to surpass 110,000 feet and to get pictures of the forest fires in the North Cascade Mountains |
Date: | August 27, 2017 |
Status: | Failed |
Altitude: | Unknown |
Site: | Orondo Washington |
Duration: | Unknown |
This was a very difficult launch with just two of us. We wanted to launch at sunrise to photograph the extensive forest fires and to break 110,000 feet. The gusty conditions caused the balloon to hit a building just after launch. We assume that this jarred the batteries loose and we lost radio connection. We eventually lost site of the balloon. After scouring the projected landing area on two separate occasions we had to give up.
Lessons learned: