A group of pupils from Ipswich High School for Girls successfully launch a teddy into space from the grounds of Churchill College as part of National Science Week.
The all girls’ Science Club, joined members of the Cambridge University Spaceflight to send ‘Benjamin’ up to 90,000ft using a helium weather balloon to take photos of the edge of space.
Following a flight into the upper atmosphere, the balloon, carrying Benjamin, a digital camera, a temperature sensor, a GPS tracker, a radio transmitter, and a parachute returned its contents to earth and were retrieved by the girls two and half hours later in a field in Rutland.
Marcus Gibbs, Head of Physics, said:
“We were thrilled that the flight was a huge success. The girls were really excited to be involved in the space mission, and over the moon that Benjamin took such a superb space selfie.”
Pupils retrieve Benjamin from his landing spot 2.5hrs later in a field in Rutland.
Flight path of ‘Benjamin’ the Teddy on 16th March 2015.
Cambridge University Spaceflight
The pupils were assisted by the Cambridge University Spaceflight — a student run society founded in 2006 with the aim of developing the technology needed to reduce the cost of sub-orbital access to space for scientific research by launching high altitude balloon, designing rockets and other space-related experiments.
Keen to encourage encourages the next generation of scientists and engineers to take science education to a higher level CUSF run an outrreach programme giving talks and demonstrations to schools as well as helping schools launch their own projects.
