On April 27th our West K High Altitude Balloon team launched their payload design (ICARUS II) into the stratosphere. We launched from Alonsa MB shortly before noon and recovered it in a farmers field north east of Winkler a few hours later. It was another successful flight!

A few details of the launch:

– Maximum altitude reached: 33384m (109,527 ft)

– Maximum speed reached: 169 km/hr

– Flight time: 2 hours, 46 minutes

– The payload was equipped with several seed samples and a geigermeter to measure radiation levels… Our team proposed this science experiment to see if the exposure to increased radiation levels affected the seeds when compare to control samples left on the ground. Unfortunately the geiger counter failed and we did not retrieve the radiation level data . The HAB students planted the seeds and are currently putting together a report on the plant progress.