Students record video of the Earth from edge of space
Two University of Sheffield students have recorded a video of the Earth from the edge of space, using homemade equipment and on a shoestring budget.
The balloon was launched from Ashborne, Derbyshire on 17 December 2010, and was in flight for approximately two hours and 50 minutes, before landing in a field in Strethall, Cambridgeshire, a journey of over 100 miles. The location, which is Chris´ home town, was chosen specifically, as it was predicted that launching there would result in the device landing in a rural area. The video footage, which lasts for two hours, shows the balloon being launched at sunrise and rapidly climbing above the clouds, filming the ground below and eventually showing the curvature of the Earth´s atmosphere. The balloon, after swelling to many times its original size, eventually burst, allowing the parachute to open and the box to descend back to Earth. It is thought that at its maximum height, the balloon reached an altitude of 37km. The video also shows the box being built from scratch, and the journey to collect the device from a snowy field in Cambridgeshire.
Wikipedia: Stratosphere + Atmosphere of Earth