Balloon lifts students’ lofty aspirations

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A group of college students from across Kentucky launched Space Balloon-1 from Bowling Green on Monday. The craft, mostly student designed, built and programmed by students, floated into the stratosphere with panoramic cameras and student experiments such as space navigation controls and a beacon to transmit live videofeed. Reaching a final altitude of 91,277 feet, above 99 percent of the atmosphere, the balloon’s cameras were able to capture the curvature of the Earth and the blackness of space, similar to the view from space shuttles. Photos by Daniel Houghton

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