Science and Exploration

First HD Camera At The Edge Of Space

By Keith Cowing
May 24, 2013
Filed under

This is a clip of the VadoHD video camera at an altitude between 80,000 ft and 100,000 ft. The camera is attached to the payload of a research weather balloon. The balloon was launched from the lawn of the University of Houston and traveled approximately 20 miles East to Baytown TX before the balloon burst and the payload fell to Earth by parachute. The VadoHD survived ambient air pressures as low as 1/100th of an atmosphere, temperatures as low as -60C, and even survived being run over by an industrial lawn mower 1 week after falling to Earth. Incidentally we never would have found the payload if it hadn’t been run over by this lawn mower. All of the data was intact on the camera and though a lawn mower blade destroyed the LCD screen, the VadoHD still takes great video!

This is a clip of the VadoHD video camera at an altitude between 80,000 ft and 100,000 ft. The camera is attached to the payload of a research weather balloon. The balloon was launched from the lawn of the University of Houston and traveled approximately 20 miles East to Baytown TX before the balloon burst and the payload fell to Earth by parachute. The VadoHD survived ambient air pressures as low as 1/100th of an atmosphere, temperatures as low as -60C, and even survived being run over by an industrial lawn mower 1 week after falling to Earth. Incidentally we never would have found the payload if it hadn’t been run over by this lawn mower. All of the data was intact on the camera and though a lawn mower blade destroyed the LCD screen, the VadoHD still takes great video!

SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.