Pictures from JP Aerospace's Oct 6, 2001 Dark Sky Station 2 flight

On Oct 6, 2001, JP Aerospace conducted a second test of the Dark Sky Station platform, with arms twice as long as those used on the flight in May. It's called a "station" because it's a prototype for a platform which can carry different kinds of stratospheric (high altitude) research. Once the station is operational, it will begin as a rocket launch platform for an amateur space launch attempt.

The weather was close to perfect. And the launch preparation teams did their jobs efficiently. Everything before launch went well.

Unfortunately, this test will have to be done again after some modifications to the structure. The double-length arms and larger balloons produced in-flight stresses that broke up the structure. Fortunately, everything we needed to learn about this hapenned where the whole team could observe. All the on-board telemetry was received. The on-board camcorder survived, and made for some very dramatic video. Photos and video were also taken from the ground.

This web site was originally intended to help JPA members collecting that data to determine what corrective measures need to be taken We will fix this. And we will be back with the double-arm DSS. Until then, many plans also remain for the flight-proven single-arm DSS.

From what I saw on the Recovery Teams, most poeple's spirits were still good. We recovered the weather balloon after it went to 108,000' (21 miles) in altitude. It was recovered 20 miles away at Rabbithole, Nevada. Most of us were thinking of this as the accomplishment of the day. Any time someone puts something over 100,000', it's an accomplishment. If you recover it the same day, that's also an accomplishment.

Date	Activities	Photos
Friday, Oct 5, 2001	Set up camp, visit AeroPAC launch site, DSS setup	8
Saturday, Oct 6, 2001	Preparations and flight of DSS2	16
Saturday, Oct 6, 2001	Recovery of the weather balloon package	13

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Copyright (c) 2001 Ian Kluft