Up, up and away – a school's beautiful balloon reaches space

Staff and students at Boston Spa High School launched the helium balloon with a camera attached and were staggered by the clarity of the photographs they saw a few hours later.

Fortuitously, the balloon landed within five miles of its take-off point.

The attempt was the school's second launch in two months, after a first try in May with a smaller balloon.

Then, the school could not retrieve the box containing the camera equipment as it had landed more than100 miles away, near Peterborough.

Last Thursday, the school made its second attempt – using a balloon that was four times bigger than the first.

And, this time, they had tracking support from Leeds-based amateur balloon expert Rob Harrison and from Saltaire-based hi-tech company Pace.

About 20 students helped with the 10am take-off, using wind speed calculations to predict the trajectory.

A few hours later, the balloon touched down at Lotherton Hall on the edge of Leeds.

Staff member Jane Green said: "It worked this time. We had a much

better tracking device. The photographs look really amazing."