Today we had our annual high school sports tournament, and during this time, I got an unexpected SMS. A news reporter from News24 had gotten hold of me and wanted to do a column on my project! It turns out that Thomas Knemeyer knows a few people in the media industry and was able to get hold of someone who would be willing to publish my story. This was fantastic news, as it means that my project is starting to gain attention. I will contact the news reporter later today, but for now: sports.
After dominating the sports tournament, I met with Rian at the Airport to get a tour of the Weather Station, and I was surprised all around. Firstly, the Weather Station is situated in the Air Traffic Control tower (ATC), so security was insanely tight. After making my way through the front gates, I was greeted by Rian, who took me on the tour of the tower. The weather room was occupied by five people and about 20 computers with screens the size of TVs! My curiosity soon got the better of me and I asked every single question I could think of about meteorology and tried to learn as much about it as I could, as I found the subject fascinating. This conversation ended up carrying on for well over an hour and by the end of it I felt that I knew everything I needed to know. This included coming to the realization that there is no chance in hell of me launching a balloon to space tomorrow, as the upper winds are too violent and they will most likely carry the payload into the sea. This was sweet and sour, as I really did want to get another launch under my belt, but at the same time, I wasn’t ready for it.
After the meeting we decided to meet up again next week, once I had got everything in order and was ready for another launch. Rain told me that there was a slight chance that they would be able to help out with the Hydrogen, depending on whether their generator was fixed by then or not.
Since the launch is cancelled for tomorrow, I will have to contact all the necessary people and relay my decision on to them. Over the course of the next week I will make the new housing, pick up the GPS tracker from Jason’s friend, Paulo in Plattekloof, hack the Canon G15 and do a camera test, building the new parachute document every step of the way.
