Inch's Trip to Near Space

This is a pictorial record of our McDonald's Teenie Beanie Baby, "Inch" the inch worm's trip to near space on a weather balloon. "Inch" has been chosen to be our Mission Commander; replacing our previous commander, Major Tom. (a small pink plastic parachutist)

It's 7am Saturday morning, July 18th 1998, at a farm on the out skirts of Gardner Kansas. (38deg 47.811min N / 94deg 57.509min W) A team of amateur ham radio operators, and just amateur's in general, set out to launch a weather balloon with several experiments.

The goals of this launch are to:

• Break the altitude record of 98,000 feet
• Create a video record of the flight
• Create an audio record of the flight
• Drop several "asteroids"
• Drop "Helicopters" created by a second grade class
• Have the only Teenie Beanie Baby that has traveled in near space