About Us

Welcome to Project Blue Horizon

Project Blue Horizon is a multi-year project to design, construct, and launch an amateur balloon with the aim of surpassing distance, duration, and altitude records.

Each year, a new group of Cornell graduate students follows a rigorous schedule and standardized system engineering process to propose, develop, and successfully achieve increasingly ambitious objectives.

Click below to see the evolution of Project Blue Horizon: our team, our work, and our accomplishments!

Increment I (Class of 2008 Group 1)

Increment I represented the first year of Project Blue Horizon, and successfully achieved many proof of concepts that paved the way for future balloon missions. The team of nine engineers saw the successful use of telemetry, commanded abort, and recovery of all three mission payloads.
Mission Date Altitude Distance Duration Notes
PBH IMarch 28, 2007100,778 ft71 mi2 hrs, 5 minsFirst balloon launch
PBH IIApril 29, 200762,551 ft49.37 mi1 hr, 34 minsFirst successful abort
PBH IIIMay 11, 2007~100,000 ft35 mi~2hrs, 17minsObtained high altitude imagery

Increment II (Class of 2008 Group 2)

Increment II expanded on the accomplishments of the first class. They came within 4,000 ft of the altitude record on their first flight, and finally surpassed that record on their fourth flight. They were the first team to utilize APRS to track their flights. They also managed to successfully send camera images of their third flight, producing fantastic imagery (like the background image on this website).
Mission Date Altitude Distance Duration Notes
PBH IVMarch 17, 2008116,204 ft~80 mi~3 hrs
PBH VMay 5, 200884,959 ft40 mi2 hrs, 4 minsSuccessful APRS use
PBH VIMay 13, 2008104,498 ft51 mi3 hrs, 3 minsSuccessful downlinked imagery
PBH VIIMay 13, 2008125,447 ft68 mi3 hrs, 21 minsHeld the amateur altitude record

Increment III (Class of 2009)

Increment III followed on the prior year's successes with major achievements of their own. Their first mission was the first to use a zero-pressure balloon, and landed all the way in Northern Nova Scotia. Their subsequent mission surpassed that by achieving the world record for flight duration with a time of nearly 50 hours, and traveling almost 2,000 miles!
Mission Date Altitude Distance Duration Notes
PBH VIIIMarch 21, 2009~79,000 ft1162.45 mi33 hrs, 2 minsFirst use of zero-pressure balloon
PBH IXMarch 21, 200975,114 ft1,965 mi49 hrs, 49 minsHolds current flight duration record

Increment IV (Class of 2010)

The Increment IV team was another step in the evolution of Project Blue Horizon. They re-engineered the system solution to provide a refined hardware and software set for future missions. Their last mission was the first multi-balloon mission, with two flights being launched, tracked, and communicating at the same time.
Mission Date Altitude Distance Duration Notes
PBH XApril 4, 201080,779 ft1,259 mi30 hrs, 51 mins
PBH XIApril 21, 20109,235 ft15 mi2 hrs, 17 minsMulti-mission flight
PBH XIIApril 21, 2010121,722 ft65 mi2 hrs, 11 minsNew Vision's participation

Increment V (Class of 2011)

The Increment V team continued the spiral development of the Project Blue Horizon solution. They enhanced the ground segment software through the development of prediction modeling for pre-mission planning as well as during mission and abort. The team, with the help of New Visions Academy, successfully captured wind data and images during the flight and was able to successfully recover all payloads that landed over soil.
Mission Date Altitude Distance Duration Notes
PBH XIIIMarch 4, 2011135,030 ft335 mi9 hrs, 32 minsHigh Altitude Record
PBH XIVApril 1, 201186,460 ft--Scientific Payload Mission
PBH XVApril 28, 2011108,162 ft-13 hrsDuration Mission

Increment VI (Class of 2012)

The current team, Increment VI, has ambitious goals of exceeding the major amateur ballooning records:
Mission Date Altitude Distance Duration Notes
PBH XVIIIMarch 23, 2012107,244 ft2423.97 mi84 hrs 32 minsDuration Record
PBH XVIApril 26, 201280,000 ft74 mi1.5 hrs 0 minsLive Amateur TV, Accelerometer data
PBH XVIIApril 26, 201290,000 ft80 mi2.0 hrs 0 minsBeyond Line-of-Sight Comms