LAUNCHED!

After 9 months of work, some unexpected delays, budget and timing challenges, and endless details to manage, at 3:00pm today, Daedalus-1 had a successful launch!  It was truly thrilling to watch, and we ended up with a nice audience of well-wishers and curious onlookers to join the send-off.

Tying safety lines and filling up the balloon

After running various scenarios and predictions based on the weather that morning, we faced a choice - go for a "safe" launch in the central valley south of San Jose with very few challenging predicted landing spots, but not as spectacular of a view... or a riskier launch south of San Francisco that would take the balloon directly over the city, over the Bay Bridge, over the San Francisco Bay itself, and up into Marin County and Napa Valley, some of the most scenic areas anywhere.  Unquestionably this would give us more spectacular video footage, but there were far more possible things that could go wrong on the landing - namely, landing in the bay, or in various lakes, or in more mountainous and rugged terrain.  The weather in San Francisco was so clear, that we ultimately chose to go for the riskier, but more beautiful flight path.  We would launch from Franklin D. Roosevelt Elementary School in Daly City, CA... the perfect location for our proposed flight path, and a nice spot used each weekend by amateur RC plane clubs who were happy to host and help us.

The 5th tank of helium topping off the balloon

After testing all the equipment, verifying all the settings, and assembling the final parts of the capsule, we hit one big snag.  We had purchased two tanks of helium, totaling 140 cubic feet, giving us a healthy cushion (or so we thought) over the 115 c.f. that we should need to get the proper lift.  After depleting both tanks of helium filling the balloon, there wasn't nearly enough lift.  The tanks did not have the amount of helium they should have had, or we had a leak somewhere in the regulator.  Now we had a partially-filled ballon with not enough helium, and no way to call it off.  (Helium is EXPENSIVE these days!).  But without enough lift, we won't get to the burst altitude, and may not even clear the nearby hills and trees.  So with a last-minute panic call to the local Party City, we had found 7 consumer-sized 18 c.f. tanks available and raced to get them and return to continue the launch.

Tying off the balloon after filling

With enough helium FINALLY in the balloon to lift our test weights assuring the proper lift, we were finally ready... a few hours later than planned, but still with great weather.  We went over our final checklist, and finally cut our safety line holding down our balloon, and ran the payload into an open area to make sure it launched safely.  It did, and we watched it disappear into the coastal fog at around 3:00 p.m. today.  The ascent rate seemed just about right.  We jumped on the Pocketfinder site and got 5 or 6 updates on its location and altitude as it rose, but then, as expected, it rose above cellular range and we lost touch with it.  All seemed well, and it took off in the direction of the predicted path we had charted.  It was incredibly exciting to see it take off after all the work over the past months.

Now comes the chase... and the waiting.  With no more real-time updates arriving for around two hours, we have no choice but to head north across the Golden Gate Bridge, then continuing northeast into Napa county.  The prediction website has forecasted a landing at 5:00 pm, 2 hours after liftoff, landing somewhere around Yountville, north of Napa.  We're headed that way to be ready for the pocketfinder to make contact again after coming back down below 30,000 feet.  Fingers crossed!