Up, Up and Away: Callanan, Science Bound Launch Weather Balloon
We have liftoff!
The third time was the charm for a proud, excited bunch of apprentice scientists at (Cape) Callanan Middle School this morning.
Nosa Ali, Gloria Almendarez, Moises Castellanos, Roman Talbert, Daniel Miron, Brett Blackwood and Linda Valle are 8th grade students in Anson Bonte’s Science Bound program class, a partnership between DMPS and Iowa State University.
Today they’re Callanan’s counterparts to the original Mercury Seven astronauts that literally launched America’s manned space program in the 1960’s.
They’ve been working all semester on a weather balloon project that was supposed to take off before the school year ended but, ironically, had to be scrubbed twice due to bad weather.
But this morning all systems were go. Bonte filled the balloon with helium like both a NASA technician gassing up rocket boosters and a champion from the Iowa State Fair bubblegum blowing contest.
Students readied the gear on the bright orange data box that will relay lots of information back to mission control during the 2-3 hour flight that’s expected to reach an altitude between 90,000 and 100,000 feet and enable the onboard camera to capture shots of the earth’s curvature.
Others opened a line of communication with the FAA, as required, so there would be immediate notification once the craft was aloft and beginning its ascent.
And the rest of the crew pondered what to name it. Bubblicious was a possibility. So was Cy, in recognition of the tiny stuffed ISU mascot that was tethered to the data box. How about Cal? Before a firm decision was made the countdown was on and finally, after months of study and preparation and a couple of false starts – up, up and away it went!
The high-flying boomerang was expected to return to earth within a retrievable radius and the data box was equipped to provide GPS tracking coordinates that would enable pinpointing of the touchdown spot via Google Earth. At that point the Science Bound Seven planned to pile into an earthbound ISU rover with Commander Bonte and go fetch the thing that, suddenly and unexpectedly, they found themselves kind of missing as it drifted out of sight. But not out of touch. When it was gone from view they headed inside to track it.
Through these curious, intrepid students and their teachers at Callanan, the whole district is flying high today.
Stay tuned for more stories about the voyages of the starship DMPS.
