Launch

Apogee was launched November 11th, 2012 in Lancaster, California. It contained an iPhone for video recording and a SPOT GPS tracker to track its location. The iPhone ran an application designed to record video efficiently and ensure that video would be recorded the whole time.

The payload was composed of a styrofoam box, with aluminum bands around the perimeter to keep the box shut.

The parachute used to control the descent was the exact same parachute used in the previous weather balloon project, and the balloon was an identical 6-foot-diameter weather balloon.

Retrieval

Apogee landed near Cottonwood Springs, nearly 150 miles east of its launch site in Lancaster. It landed there at 12:16 PM, making a flight time of about four and a half hours. It landed far from any road, so retrieval on the day of the landing was not feasible.

Some days later, we procured a fleet of Jeeps to navigate off-road to Apogee's landing site.

Apogee was found exactly as expected, just where the coordinates said it was.

There were fairly sharp dents in the aluminum and styrofoam, indicating that it hit the ground very forcefully.

All parts were perfectly intact when the box was opened. The iPhone recorded 4 hours and 30 minutes of video before it ran out of battery, capturing almost all of the ascent of the balloon. (The file containing the final 10 minutes of footage was corrupted.) The GPS was still on and functioning when the payload was found.