Bronco Athletics

Brophy CubeSat Club Launches Weather Balloon that Reaches the Edge of Space

5, 4, 3, 2, 1… The Brophy CubeSat Club is officially out of this world after the successful launch and recovery of a weather balloon last Friday that reached the edge of space. The exhilarating ascent occurred against the desert sky in Tonopah, Ariz., to test data collection equipment for implementation on the team’s satellite in low Earth orbit.
 
The CubeSat crew — Alexander Motola ‘25, Henry Silvernail ’27, lan Koeninger ’25, Leo Ma ’26, Lucas Vargas ’26 and Sami Shammas ’26 — was on hand to witness the ascent that captured a glimpse of the curvature of the Earth at its highest point (video below). The crew recovered the weather balloon approximately 85 miles away near Maricopa. Making the successful launch and recovery possible is club moderator Mr. Jason Svedin and the support of other faculty members, as well as the Brophy Rocketry Club.
 
The Brophy CubeSat Club is dedicated to launching a small satellite into orbit to measure dust cloud formation over the Southwest U.S. to better predict outbreaks of Valley Fever.
 
Video: CubeSat Club students
 

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