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THE GRAND CANYON — After two years, a GoPro camera attached to a weather balloon has found its way home.
A group of students launched the weather balloon 2 miles from the Grand Canyon back in June 2013, according to a team member's post on Reddit under the username trexarmsss. A cellphone with GPS and a GoPro were attached to the balloon, but due to spotty coverage the team couldn't find the equipment when it returned to Earth's surface.
"Two years later, in a twist of ironic fate, a woman who works at AT&T was on a hike one day and spotted our phone in the barren desert," trexarmsss wrote. "She brings it to an AT&T store, and they identify my friend's SIM card. We got the footage and data a few weeks later!"
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The beauty of space can be seen in greater detail than ever before.The video, which features gorgeous, hazy views of the Grand Canyon from high up in Earth's stratosphere, was posted by team member Bryan Chan to YouTube Thursday and has already more than 2 million views.
Only 9 minutes after being released, the balloon and camera reached a height of 22,967 feet. One hour and 27 minutes after the launch, at 98,660 feet, the balloon pops and viewers can see debris flying before the camera tumbles back to the surface of the Earth. The video's creators said the descent took about 30 minutes.
GoPro's official YouTube account commented on the video, saying the company would like to hook the team up with a 4K HERO4 for its next flight.
The Grand Canyon Stratospheric Balloon Team was comprised of Chan, Ved Chirayath, Ashish Goel, Tyler Reid and Paul Tarantino. They were supported by Vedphoto.com and received the Samsung phone from Broadcom.
