One of the first questions people ask about balloon launches is always, “Where do you launch these things?” usually followed with “…and where do they land?”

The short answer is that we don’t determine a launch location until 72-48 hours before launch. That location is based on calculating the balloon’s path through wind vectors across all accent and decent altitudes with a goal of landing in an area free of population, large bodies of water, and heavily wooded portions of the state.

Looking 5-6 days out before our proposed launch, I thought you might enjoy a video update as I step through the preliminary process. It’s a little more complex than one you see here, but it’s easier to do a video of this part than to type it all up.

Video explaining path prediction and launch site selection

Enjoy!