LASA10 Recovery on going…

LASA team members Rick Szjarto and Peter McCracken traveled to New York State on Saturday following the successful launch of two Edge of Space Probes.  They were just south of Gananoque near Hyde Lake.  They tracked the payload to its last known positon on  the property of Robbyn Parker.  After seeking permision from Robbyn the two acompanied by Aaron Parker and local Amateur Radio Operator David Aitechson set out to the last known coordinates.  The party began a systematic search of the property for the package but after 3 hours of searching the forest, swamp and rocky high ground they were unsuccessful.  And decided to head for home.  Robbyn will keep her eyes open for the balloon.  Chances are good that she’ll find it, she spends a lot of time on her land and even found a government weather balloon a few years back.

Lasa 9 VE3REX-11 Recovered!

Recovery Team Bob Sharp and Gordon Dewis with Barrie Crampton

The payload of LASA9 ascended to the edge of space on April 30th and dropped back to the surface of the planet a few hours after launch.  During its flight the balloon broadcast messages recorded by students from Perth Ontario (See the Sounds of LASA9 below).  Balloon chasers using radio and computers  saw on their digital maps the balloon land in what looked like the middle of the St Lawrence River.  When they arrived at the river shortly after landing the payload was still sending out radio signals.  Using the signal and binoculars they were able to site the payload floating in the river.  They were able to contact some local boaters to hitch a ride and recover the package.

Recovering LASA 9 from its watery landing

The Flights of LASA9 and 10

The Sounds of LASA 9

The payload of LASA9 included a small transmitter broadcasting messages recorded by the students of St John Elementary School and St John Catholic High School in Perth Ontario.  The recordings were broadcast over amateur radio frequencies.  Students at the launch heard their messages coming from the edge of space.  Some of the messages were mixed into a montage by local radio station CHLK – Lake 88 FM88.1 .  The montage was featured in a Lake88 Interview with Barrie Crampton explaining the LASA 9 Mission Voices from the  edge of space.mp3 originally broadcast April 28 at 4:15 EDT.

• Full Lake 88 interview explaining LASA9 \”Voices from the Edge of Space\”
• Montage of St John Elementary grade 6 on Lake 88
• Message From Mr Hogan\’s GR9 Science class St John Catholic HS

Balloon Tracking Links

Follow our two balloons on google maps Balloon Tracks

• Lasa-9 from St John Elementary is call sign VE3REX-11
• Lasa-10 from St John Catholic High School is VE3LCA-111
• NOTE  data shown before 9am EST 30 APR is from a previous launch

Tweet us with your comments or check our Twitter feed to see who else is following the balloon and what they are saying.

Annoucning LASA 9 and LASA 10

Lanark Space Agency announced its next launch(es).  They will take Place Saturday 30 April, 2011 at 9:00am.  The launch will be from the Crystal Palace in the Turning Basin, down town Perth.  The launches are a part of Perth’s Festival of the Maples and will be educational in nature.

St John Elementary will be launching LASA-9 call sign VE3REX-11 as part of their study of space and flight.  Students have crafted “messages from space” that will travel aboard in written form and as a recording that will be broadcast over amateur frequencies in flight.  Launch preperations begin at 8am at the Crystal Palace (there will be no vehicle access to the basin so you may want to park at the school and walk over

St John Catholic High School grade 9 students in Mr P. Hogan’s class will be launching their balloon LASA-10 call sign VE3LCA-11 around the same time.

Returnto The Lanark Space Agency website on launch day for information on how to track the balloons online, hear student messages, and see photos taken from near space.

LASA assists Acedemic Research

Lanark Space Agency members assisted a group of 4th year Queens University Physics Engineering students with their balloon born research probe.  The probe was launched from Perth on Sunday April 10, 2011 at approximately 1pm EDT.

The flight took the probe to a height of over 102,000ft and zigzaged over upstate NY eventually  landing in the Blue Mountains.

Queens Engineering Launch - Perth ON 2011-04-11

Flight of VA3ATP-11

More Launch Photos can be seen at

https://picasaweb.google.com/113279874216002736175/20110410QueensBalloonLaunch?authkey=Gv1sRgCOuak5nnsbSBfg#

International Press for LASA

Sun Journal of Lewiston Maine reports on LASA 8 mission

Sun Journal \”Ontario to Maine\” story

Heavenly Memorial for friend of LASA

On 11 November 2009 John W1AKV and Ray K1AKV retrieved the Amateur High Altitude Balloon packageThat was launched fromPerth Ontario Canada On 7 Nov, 2009 andlanded near to near John and Ray’s Vermont homes John passed away on 7 November 2010.  As a memoriam to John this picture and his obituary were carried in the flight package of Balloon VE3REX-11 Launched 20 Nov.2010 The picture was carried to an altitude of 130,903 feet landing in Jay, Maine

Barrie VE3BSB

John W. Soderberg, W1AKV, (SK):

John Soderberg, W1AKV, of Weston, Vermont, passed away on November

Lasa VIII photo galleries

Friday – Pre Launch Preperations

The Launch of LASA VIII

The Chase and Recovery