EAST LANSING (WWJ) – A weather balloon launched by a group from Michigan State University to capture images from high in the atmosphere rose to about 105,000 feet before plummeting back to Earth.
Instructor Troy Hale and the film-making and broadcast journalism students launched the camera-laden balloon Sunday from Grand Rapids, capturing hours of video footage.
READ MORE: Whitmer Tours Eastern Michigan University Vaccination Clinic“I’ve always been a fan of space and this is kind of the closest I’ll ever get to it,” Hale told WWJ’s Zahra Huber. “And what I wanted to do with this is the way we designed the camera system was so that we could bring it back to the ground and make a museum installation where we could project all the shots around and people could go inside and ride this balloon into space and feel like they were astronauts.”
READ MORE: Stimulus Check Update: Is A Fourth Relief Payment Coming?Hale said his students really enjoyed the launch — a “side project” to get them out of the classroom.
“They want to mess with cameras, and they want to do documentaries so we’re kind of doing a behind-the-scenes documentary about our process and building this thing as well,” Hale said. “I just find that learning outside the classroom is sometimes a lot more beneficial than sitting in a classroom pointing at a power point.”
MORE NEWS: Michigan Reports 9,674 New COVID-19 Cases, 12 Deaths For Sunday And MondayHale says they also want to make a museum installation where they could project all the shots they took.