The Brooklyn Space Program

The New York borough of Brooklyn has its own space program.

A group of parents and children, led by Brooklyinite videographer Luke Geissbuhler, successfully sent a homemade capsule containing a high-definition digital camera and an iPhone (acting as a GPS) into space, successfully sending their capsule via weather balloon to a height of nearly 19 miles, or 100,000 feet, and then retrieved their capsule for further experimentation after it landed a mere 30 miles north of its launch site.

Pretty damn cool and, frankly, done at a fraction of the cost of the first space launch. Of course, this team didn't have to design the camera or the location system, and they used ancient analog technology -- a weather balloon -- to launch, but they still had to overcome some pretty interesting engineering problems. Protecting their gear from the altitude and the cold? Hand-warmers and a waterproof capsule. How cool is that?

Well done, crew. I'll follow your further experiments with interest. You can read more about them here.