Scouts Launch High-Altitude Balloon and Capture Amazing Photos

To get completely out of Earth’s atmosphere, you’d have to go about 300 miles up. But you don’t have to go nearly that high to get an amazing view of outer space.

Troop 544 in Gresham, Oregon, attached a camera to a balloon and launched it more than 20 miles into the air. When it landed two hours later, the camera’s memory card contained some amazing photos.

The Scouts spent many meetings figuring out how to get the 15-foot-wide balloon and camera into the air. They ran computer simulations to estimate its flight path and required battery power.

Check out their pictures below.