PORT ANGELES – Folks in Port Angeles and in Forks will see large high-altitude balloons in their respective high school playfields tomorrow.
The Northwest Earth and Space Sciences Pipeline (a NASA-funded program) is leading the launches, hosted locally by The Northwest Discovery Lab, a non-profit educational foundation based in Port Townsend. They’ll launch a High Altitude Balloon from Forks High School and will livestream the setup, countdown, and launch on their YouTube channel, where students will be able to track it’s ascent. The balloon will rise to about 130,000ft and will take 2-3 hours to return to Earth after popping.
Later in the day here in Port Angeles, they will also be launching a tethered balloon at high school soccer field. A news release says students and staff from Chimacum Middle School, Crescent School District, and Stevens Middle School who observed the demonstration last year are welcome to come watch the tethered balloon launch as long as they are accompanied and by their school’s staff.
They do not anticipate being able to release that balloon however, because predictions they’ve run so far have the balloon landing in heavily populated areas such as downtown Seattle. The release says there is a small chance that they day of, they will run a prediction that looks safe enough to launch—but they won’t know until the 18th.
Forks HS launch time: 8:30am – 9:30am Thursday April 18th.
Port Angeles HS launch time: 11am – 12pm Thursday April 18th.
Northwest Discovery Lab’s mission is to develop, promote, and support S.T.E.M education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) for youth on the Olympic Peninsula.
They have setup a shortcut to the youtube channel for the live stream at nwdiscoverylab.org/hab
