Students in ESA member and cooperating states can apply for payload opportunities on sounding rocket and high altitude balloon flights in the coming year: Fly your experiment to the edge of space! - ESA - Sept.1.10.

A reader points to this article about the Red Bull Stratos project, which aims to allow Felix Baumgartner to dive safely from a balloon at 120,000 ft (36.6 km): The Man Who Would Fall to Earth - Esquire (Single page version).

The article actually focuses mostly on space medicine expert Jonathan Clark, whose wife Laurel Clark was killed in the Columbia accident. Dr. Clark is the medical director for the Stratos project, which he sees as contributing to research into high altitude escape systems.

An update on Michel Fournier's Le Grand Saut and Felix Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos space diving projects: Sky Dive Free-Fall Record from Space - Red Bull Stratos Sky Dive Space Record - Popular Mechanics - July.29.10.

The North Texas Balloon Project points me to an announcement about their next mission: Flight 18: Summer 2010, August 7, Hillsboro, Texas.

The latest on the Red Bull Stratos project in which Felix Baumgartner, plans to sky dive from 120,000 feet (36.6 km) from a high altitude balloon: Skydiver Plans Record-Breaking Supersonic Space Jump - SPACE.com. (He will, of course, not use a "hot air balloon" but a helium balloon. They apparently did some low altitude testing with hot air balloons.)

The latest on the Red Bull Stratos high altitude sky jump project: Red Bull Stratos: Update on High Altitude Jump Project62 Mile Club - June.29.10

What you can do these days in high altitude ballooning with low cost equipment is pretty amazing. A reader sends a pointer to this video from a balloon flight carried out by "group of engineers/designers from San Francisco". The sharpness of the picture is excellent.

Shot with 2 HD Hero cameras from GoPro. Launched from the California coast near Davenport, landed in Crows Landing 70 miles away. Peak altitude 80,000 feet. Acquired GPS, pressure, accelerometer, and temperature data with a Shadowbox (www.shadowboxlive.com). The payload was tracked with a SPOT satellite personal tracker.

A summary and lots of pictures of four high altitude balloon flights, including two that tested rocket launch systems, carried out by JP Aerospace over a weekend back at the end of April: Away 43-46 - Apr.24-25.

John Powell says he will be on the Space Talk radio sho with Jim Banke (1240 & 1350 - WMMB) today at 11:15 am PT (2:15 pm ET): JP on the Radio - JP Aerospace Blog - June.4.10.

Michel Fournier's Le Grand Saut (Big Jump) from near-space failed again to get off the ground this past weekend: Michele Fournier Free Fall Attempt - Sky Diving Record Attempt - Popularmechanics.com -

Michele Fournier has attempted to break Joe Kittinger's record for the highest free fall three times since 2002. This weekend, Fournier tried once again, this time with an all-star American balloon team. Live from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, senior editor Jennifer Bogo reports on the latest effort.

The recent set of JP Aerospace flights included one in which some small rockets were launched from the balloon platforms at high altitude. This tested out all of the systems that will be needed for launching large rockets later. Here is a video of the model rockets firing off at high altitude: Rockoons - JP Aerospace Blog -

A video with musical soundtrack from JP Aerospace's recent Away 45 mission:

John Powell gives a summary of last week's balloon flights, two of which included launching small rockets: Mission Summary - JP Aerospace Blog - Apr.30.10.

The ARCA Space balloon test of their telemetry systems seemed to go well: Successful flight of Helen 2 electronic equipments during Mission 5 - X PRIZE Foundation.

Their next event should be the balloon launched rocket, Helen 2.
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A scientific balloon mission in Australia, on the other hand, didn't go off well at all. I feel for the grad students who had experiments on this thing.

ARCA Space is carrying out a balloon flight today in preparation for a later test flight of its balloon/rocket Helen 2 system. The goal of today's flight is to test "telemetry systems, radio, TV and satellite transmission equipments for Mission 5".

Update: ARCA has posted this press release (pdf) giving a brief description of the balloon test they now plan for Tuesday, 27th.
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John Powell gave a preview last Friday of the goals of the missions they were planning for this weekend, which included some rockoon flights. No word yet on how they went: Quick Mission Overview - JP Aerospace Blog - Apr.23.10.

Update: John Powell gives a brief update on how the flights went: Still on Recovery - JP Aerospace Blog

Here's a report on a space suit developed for the Red Bull Stratos project in which Felix Baumgartner will dive from a balloon at 120k ft (~37km): Next-gen space suit revealed for Red Bull Stratos mission - 62 Mile Club.

More info at Red Bull Stratos Newsroom . Here's a video about the suit.

An article about the Red Bull Stratos project and Fekix Baumgartner, who will attempt to break Joe Kittinger's sky-diving records for altitude and speed : Findings - Chasing the Sound Barrier, in a Leap From 23 Miles Up - NYTimes.com - Mar.15.10.

Jay Margalus, VP of Workshop 88, a "hackerspace in the Chicago suburbs", tells me they have

just started a near-space balloon competition that we're inviting hackerspaces worldwide to join in on. It's called Hackerspaces in Space (HSIS), codenamed "spaceblimp".

The project currently has

9 participating hackerspaces, including FUBAR Labs, Makers Local 256, RPI Electronics Club, HeatSync Labs, Baltimore Node, Entropia, Hive 76, Carbon Ion Inc, and of course ourselves. Additionally, we've been selected to be a part of the Hackerspace Awards hosted by Makers Local 256 this year.

Here's an announcement about the project:

Hackerspaces in Space
First Annual Space Blimp Competition

NAPERVILLE, Illinois - February 16, 2009 - Workshop 88, Chicago’s only suburban hackerspace, has announced a new competition. Hackerspaces from around the world will participate to send weather balloons, with payloads, into near space hoping to capture pictures of the Earth’s horizon. Inspired by many recent amateur weather balloon endeavors across the country, Hackerspaces in Space aims to turn this phenomenon into a fullfledged competition.

Launches will begin in June and run till the end of August. At the end of competition teams will post their results and pictures on the web where they will be judged on a variety of criteria like: retrieval time, weight of payload, and total cost of the project.

About Workshop 88
Workshop 88 is a hackerspace located in Chicago’s western suburbs where people with diverse backgrounds can socialize and collaborate. Through shared resources, knowledge and ideas we seek to create a space that promotes community and learning in science, technology, art and culture.

http://www.workshop88.com/
http://www.workshop88.com/space/

Alan Boyle provides more info on Felix Baumgartner's plans for a jump from a high altitude balloon: Daredevil plans one giant leap - Cosmic Log / msnbc.com - Jan.25.10.

Felix Baumgartner, with the support of Red Bull, will attempt a high dive from 36,575 meters by jumping out of a helium balloon gondola: 'Space diver' to attempt first supersonic freefall - New Scientist - Jan.22.10.

This could be a step towards high altitude space diving from rocket vehicles. I've posted the following simulation before but it is such a cool video I can't resist posting it again (select high def, full screen for the full effect):