My yeasu vx8gr just arrived today along with the speaker mic and car charger that we will use to track the capsule as it flies I also received a hard copy of my license.
I just received my call sign and my transceiver is on the way.
My callsign is kd0pfn
The HAPPY Capsule is back on track for a flight to near space – the launch has been scheduled for August 13th at 6:30 AM!
Launch site to be finalized – we are deciding between Santa Barbara and Morro Bay and will choose depending on the jet streams and the projected landing location…
Geoff was recently featured in a news segment on KSDK a St. Louis News channel…
I just got a new ticket ticket out I will fly on the 11th of August and will stay until the 15th the new launch date is yet to be figured out.
Yesterday Geoff was prevented from getting on the plane to Santa Barbara due to his unfortunate affiliation with a dangerous and shady underground group known as the “Under 14s”.
Geoff was returning on United Airlines which allows travelers under 14 to fly, but the trip to SB was on a different (evil?) airline which refused to let him on the plane! 🙁
But never fear folks, we plan to get this dirigible off the ground and will re-schedule the launch for this summer – we’ll keep you posted!
All is not lost! The extra time will allow us to add some new features to the payload and refine some of our communications systems.
Tomorrow I will be heading to California to meet up with Greg so we can get this thing set up and in the air
Thanks to sponsorship from Bob Schmitt and Tanya Parker we were able to get a tiny GoPro HD video camera and battery backpack – this will give us HD video for the entire flight and decent!
Thanks y’all!
The Rudys Beat balloon and parachute arrived today! We now have everything we need for the launch except for the helium 🙂
Here are some photos of the balloon, parachute and first attempts at cutting clean holes in the payload capsule…
