High School Students Launch Balloons 35km Into the Sky

When your homemade weather balloon lands on an orange farm 250 kilometres from where you launched it, you know you've done something right.

Twenty-one engineering students from Hunter School of Performing Arts in Newcastle just pulled off an incredible feat. They hand-built two weather balloons, each weighing just 3 kilograms, and successfully launched them into the upper atmosphere from Cobar in outback New South Wales.

The balloons climbed 35 kilometres above Earth before bursting and parachuting back down. That's more than three times higher than commercial planes fly and well into the stratosphere where the sky turns dark and the curvature of Earth becomes visible.

The students didn't just launch their balloons and hope for the best. Each balloon carried equipment tracking temperature, speed, location, humidity and pressure. Some students even tucked personal keepsakes inside for the journey.

The recovery mission turned into its own adventure. One balloon's string broke early and landed 40 kilometres north of Tottenham. The second balloon made the full journey and touched down at a citrus farm in Narromine, where five-year-old Ezra Roberts was riding his bike when he spotted it.

"I was riding my bike over to my dad and we found the box," Ezra said. The young farm resident became an unexpected member of the recovery team.

The students raised all $15,000 needed for materials and the trip themselves. They chose Cobar specifically to avoid their balloons landing in the ocean or trees, making retrieval possible across the flat outback terrain.

Why This Inspires

This project shows what happens when teachers trust students with real challenges. Teacher Ben Moore ran a similar balloon launch in 2024 with a smaller group that reached 28 kilometres. He loved it so much he decided to go bigger.

"It brings me a lot of pride and joy to see these guys put in all the hard work and see where the adventure takes us," Moore said.

Student Charlie Buchanan captured what made this special. "I thought the idea of us working as a class to create this one big project sounded awesome. The fact we get to design and create this whole thing sounded really cool."

These students didn't wait for someone to hand them an opportunity. They fundraised, designed, built, traveled, launched and recovered. They learned that you don't need a space agency budget to touch the edge of space.

The next generation of scientists is already reaching for the stars, one homemade balloon at a time.