Press Release – 29 July 2021

 

Congratulations to the Xceptional Innovations Team for successfully launching their first high altitude balloon with the UFO#2A custom payload into the STRATOSPHERE from Wauchula Municipal Airport in Central Florida!  The team of student engineering interns from University of Central Florida, Virginia Tech, Stanford, Lakewood Ranch High School, and Cedar Forest Elementary School assisted in the design and development of the system, test execution and payload recovery.  The team tracked UFO#2A in real time throughout the flight up to nearly 85 kft to the stratosphere where the balloon burst and then on the descending phase of the flight while UFO#2A parachuted back to earth.  UFO#2A was recovered by the team after a nearly three hour flight to the Stratosphere and back approximately 60 miles away from the Wauchula Municipal Airport!  In addition to tracking the payload in real time, the team sent commands from our ground system via the Iridium global satellite communication network that were successfully executed by the payload during the flight!  The performance of the system was also monitored by our onboard video camera!  Awesome job Connor, David, Alka, Kathleen, and Lily!  I am so excited to mentor and inspire future engineering and STEM students while developing new and innovative aerospace capabilities! It really is cool to be a female ROCKET SCIENTIST!