Ordinary guys send a camera into space

A group of guys in Alberta, Canada sent a balloon 22.27 miles up. Right to the edge of space. The balloon had a Nikon Coolpix P2 camera attached. The camera was set to take one picture a minute. Once the balloon reached the edge of the atmosphere, it burst. Coming down to a soft landing due to an attached parachute. The pictures they were able to take are amazing.

Check out their site: Southern Alberta Balloon Launch Experiment #3
Via Gizmodo: Ordinary Guys Send Picture-Taking Balloon 22.27 Miles High

It seems like lately Canada is the place to be if you are interested in fun space projects. First we had the skydive from space, and now the balloon project.

Balloon lawnchair flight

Do you remember that fantasy you used to have of tying a bunch of balloons together and flying? Well maybe you never had that fantasy, but I did. Kent Couch, a gas station owner from Oregon, had that same fantasy. So he tied 105 helium balloons to a lawn chair and took off. He traveled over 193 miles to Idaho. With a GPS device in his pocket and a few other gadgets to measure altitude he was able to track his course and speed. The only other things he carried on his lawn chair were some plastic bags full of water to use as ballast. Oh, and I almost forgot. He had a parachute to use if something went wrong and he had to bail out. All in all, pretty cool.

Via CNN: Man flies 193 miles in lawn chair