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Col Joe Kittinger National CAP AE High-Altitude Balloon Challenge for Cadets
2025 Col Joe Kittinger CAP National AE High-Altitude Balloon Challenge for Cadets
The fifth annual Col Joe Kittinger CAP National AE High-Altitude Balloon Challenge for Cadets is a wrap! The awards ceremony announced all winners on Thursday, 6 November.
- Click HERE to access the link to the awards video.
The awards slide deck lists all winners and the links to their videos.
Read the CAP.News article about the winners at Civil Air Patrol Cadets Reach New Heights in High-Altitude Balloon Challenge.
Thanks to all teams for another year of hard and impressive work!!!
CONGRATULATIONS to MAR-VA-007 William P. Knight Composite Squadron as the 2025 Kittinger Cup and $5,000 winner!
The Challenge included award grants in all categories provided by the Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) for teams to complete more STEM projects and a grand prize for the top cumulative scoring team - a $5,000 award and Kittinger Cup provided by Mrs. Joe Kittinger in memory of the late Col Joe Kittinger, the HABC benefactor and ambassador.
CAP appreciates both the AFA Education Council and Mrs. Kittinger's continued support.
As noted in the 8 August CAP.News article, the 2 August balloon launch was a spectacular success with the INWG, including commander Col Jamie Griffith, conducting an exemplary SAREX mission. All of the teams' experiments were launched to the edge of the Stratosphere in three high-altitude weather balloons at Anderson Preparatory Academy in Anderson, Indiana, while the INWG conducted the air (plane & drone), ground, and comms SAREX to track the balloons and retrieve the payloads.
Ascending balloons and the descending payloads were tracked using GPS tracking system from NearSpace Education.
The launch day was captured in a compressed video prepared by NCWG's Maj Brent Wooters, the HABC team's technical lead.
See the day's event by clicking ->
- Maj Wooters collected all the media captured on launch day and compressed into a < 30 minute video to include:
Photos and videos from the INWG team at Anderson Preparatory Academy, the launch site.
Aerial and ground footage from INWG airplanes, drones, and retrieval ground teams participating in the SAREX mission as part of HABC Launch Day.
Real-time GPS and sensor data from all three balloons, provided by our launch partner, NearSpace Education.
Teams accessed their assigned balloon's tracking link used on launch day which captured:
- Ascent/descent speeds
- Altitude
- Wind speed
- GPS coordinates (Latitude/Longitude)
Balloon A (1st Balloon) Teams List
Tracking link for Balloon A which reached an 87,894 feet burst altitude:
https://data.nsldata.com/console/balloonDashboard.php?a=9lamntYzSPBrHaPEwR6QwzLrkDIus
Balloon B (2nd Balloon) Teams List
Tracking link for Balloon B which reached an 88,188 feet burst altitude:
https://data.nsldata.com/console/balloonDashboard.php?a=lR1YFh05mDkl034azwQYGPrfyPDJ
Balloon C (3rd Balloon) Teams List
Tracking link for Balloon C which reached an 84,705 feet burst altitude:
https://data.nsldata.com/console/balloonDashboard.php?a=x9dxKt5QBGdeLiWvxFoLzddUCGiBNB
- These links will remain active for ongoing team access.
Post-Launch Data Access
NearSpace Education has provided a data analysis guide and some relevant exercises for the cadets, HERE, to conduct as a part of the science component of the HABC. The included data will assist with science experiment analysis, including:
- Ascent/descent data
- Temperature at various altitudes
- Solar radiation
- UV light exposure
As the teams worked to analyze one or more science experiment(s) they investigated the effects of high altitude on their experiment(s), trying to determine innovative solutions to issues affecting humankind being able to live and work in space in the future.
Teams finalized the science experiment analysis phase, completed their final science report slide and post-launch documentary, and submitted them all for final scoring by the HABC team, as per the scoring guidance in the 2025 HABC Guidebook.
Of Interest:
Below is a nice educational addition to this year’s HABC.
- Maj David Van Horn, AEO from the NCR-MO-126 – Lee’s Summit Composite Squadron, conducted a Radiation Dosimetry experiment during our August launch event and he has shared the results and an instructional video which we hope is helpful and interesting to you and your cadets as we move forward with the future of this program. (Thanks, Maj Van Horn!)
From Maj Van Horn:
Here are the [small] results for the radiation dosimetry. I've put together a short briefing as well.
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2025 High Altitude Balloon Challenge Radiation Dosimetry Results
The dose of the flight badge was only marginally different than the control badge: 1 millirem.
For comparison, a 3-5 hr cross-country airline flight may give a dose of 2-4 millirem.On average, Americans receive a radiation dose of about 620 millirem each year. Half of this dose comes from natural background radiation. (2022 data; US NRC)
Observations
-Flight time only around 1.5 hrs; and only partly > 40,000 ft.
-Low or normal solar activity (space weather); no energetic events on or just before the balloon flight.
-Low sensitivity/low resolution measurement.
Implication: Radiation Damage or Effects are NOT Expected to be Significant in Typical Experiments Flown on the HABC-----
Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/1117637487
Find out more about Col Kittinger and his famed high-altitude jump:
Joseph William Kittinger II (born July 27, 1928, in Tampa, Florida, United States) a former command pilot, career military officer, and retired Colonel in the United States Air Force made the first stratospheric space dive from a high-altitude balloon in 1959. Spending his military career as both a fighter pilot and a research & development test pilot, he participated in Project Excelsior, testing the effects on pilots ejecting at a high altitude. In 1960, he set a record for the longest skydive from a height greater than 102,000 feet (31 km).
See the amazing video of Kittinger's historic jump and the significant contributions to future aviation and space travel HERE.
2025 HABC Registered Teams: 172 teams from 45 wings in all 8 regions, with one APO team registered. 105 teams completed the program.
To guide teams through the six-month program, they were provided the 2025 HABC Guidebook and the associated HABC training video prepared by NCWG's Maj Brent Wooters, HABC team media specialist. (Click on photo, below, to view the video.)
The guide included due dates, capsule and experiment information, and all HABC deliverable guidance, to include AI usage guidance. As Maj Wooters explained in the video, prior to beginning work on any section of the HABC, all teams should have reviewed the scoring rubric for each of the program's deliverables: mission patch, pre-launch video, and science experiment report slide/research poster, and post-launch video. (The video was set up so teams could refer back to the instructions as they got to each section of work.)
Approved CAP Flying V Logos for HABC Use on Slides & in Videos (no logo use on mission patches):
- Clear background/full CAP name with no alterations allowed
CAP National AE High-Altitude Balloon Challenge for Cadets Team:
Lt Col Liz Dunster, co-director, NCWG
Maj Nicholas Green, co-director, NCWG
Lt Col Karen Cooper, administrative lead, RIWG
Maj Julie Sicks-Panus, scoring team lead, NHWG
Maj Brent Wooters, media specialist lead, NCWG
Capt Zach Glennon, scoring team, NHWG
Mr. Rolland Grayhek, NHQ/AE
Ms Ginny Smith, NHQ/AE
Ms Susan Mallett, NHQ/HABC Project Lead
The INWG provided expansive HABC support for the overall SAR-EX, ground team (payload recovery), communications, public affairs, weather balloon launch assistance, and HABC capsule coordination/packaging.
Much appreciation to:
- INWG Commander, Col Jamie Griffith, for overall wing HABC support
- Lt Michael Dean, GLR-IN-803 Anderson Prep Academy Cadet Squadron commander - host site for launch day
- Lt Col Frank Merrill, GLR-IN-802 Titan Cadet Squadron commander - comms site for launch day
Contact the team at HAB@capnhq.gov
2024 HAB Challenge historical page is found HERE.
2023 HAB Challenge historical page is found HERE.
2022 HAB Challenge historical page is found HERE.
Inaugural 2021 HAB Challenge historical page (with all winners and other info) is found HERE.
"I just want to thank you for putting this challenge together. My team has had a great time working on this. They’ve really learned a lot about the science behind our experiments and have formed a strong bond in the process. I hope that we are able to do this, or a similar challenge, again."
Sincerely,
Captain Leslie Kneipfer, AEO, NER-MA-005 Bridgewater State University Composite Squadron
Thank you for allowing us to be a part of history.Respectfully,
1st Lt Susan Morrison, AEO, MAR-NC-022 Burlington Composite Squadron
