Twelve pupils from Abingdon School designed and built the space balloon themselves – with expert guidance from European Astrotech, a leading space company.
Then, watched by the rest of the school, they launched the balloon during morning break, tracking its progress across the countryside.
The balloon, known as The Griffen (after the school’s emblem), was designed to climb to the edge of space (around 30,000 metres) and return to earth the same day. Sure enough, it reached a height of 29,410 metres and landed in farmland seven miles from the school.
The idea behind the 12-week project was to inspire and educate pupils about space science and technology. In the process it enabled them to get to grips with everything from telemetry software to the amount of hydrogen gas required for lift-off.
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