To Infinity and Beyond!

Every year the Senior Engineering and Design class builds something amazing. Last year they built a hover-board and a catapult. This year they are building two Space Balloons.

This year’s class is much bigger than previous years, so they have split into two separate teams. Each class building their own balloon to send into space. Because there are two teams, Mr.Smith (the teacher for the class), added a competitive aspect to it. The balloon that goes the highest and takes the best pictures gets bragging rights.

The balloons were very expensive to make, so they had to ask for a grant to buy the materials.

Senior Beccah Blevins wrote the grant request and after an agonizing wait the class got the good news that they had gotten the grant.

“[Getting the grant] was pretty great, knowing that we would have enough money to do multiple launches,” said Austin Jones, one of the seniors on the team that launched the balloon on Friday.

With the money from the grant, Mr. Smith purchased the materials necessary to build the two space balloons and construction began.

“We really had to put the balloon together in about three to four days and the thoughts from everybody’s head was just will it hold together, will it go the full distance, will we be able to retrieve it–stuff like that,” said Jones.

The first balloon was launched on Friday, November 6th, 2015, and the second one will be launched this Friday, November 13th, 2015.

The attached video is the footage from the first balloon’s time in the air, edited by Mr. Smith.

“It is pretty great, seeing the footage, and it made me feel really honored to have been a part of it,” Jones said.

The second team is launching the second balloon this Friday, November 13th, 2015.

“The other team will have more cameras, which means they will have a lot better footage, and they can learn from mistakes we made,” Jones said.