LTS Students Launch Their Own Weather Balloon!

We wanted the students in the LTS lvl Up Space Resources module to experience how it is like to work on a real space exploration mission. LTS Coach Sebastian Barillaro designed a project to immerse them in the kinds of challenges space engineers face. The mission? To design, build, and launch a weather balloon equipped with a sensor-packed payload to measure atmospheric changes during a solar eclipse.

Students worked in teams and were tasked with finding solutions at every step. Behind the scenes, a significant amount of effort went into securing the necessary authorisations. Sebastian guided the students and took responsibility for the legal and safety requirements to ensure the mission could go forward.

On March 29, the students successfully launched their weather balloon into the stratosphere, reaching an altitude of 20,250 meters. The payload captured stunning images of Earth from near space. Thanks to the GPS systems onboard, we were able to track and recover the payload once it landed.

The results of the mission exceeded everyone’s expectations — including the students’. It was a powerful example of how far students can go when given an exciting challenge and the right guidance.