Col Joe Kittinger National CAP AE High-Altitude Balloon Challenge for Cadets

2024 Col Joe Kittinger CAP National AE High-Altitude Balloon Challenge for Cadets 

The 2024 HABC program is a wrap!  

• See CAP.NEWS November 2024 article: Ohio Wing Cadets Take 1st in High-Altitude Balloon Challenge

The 29 October awards event recording is found HERE where MG Regena Aye spoke, and all winners were announced.  The show was hosted by Capt. Bob Roberts, HABC Technical Director from the SCWG, on his Aerospace Education YouTube channel.

                                                            

All category winners receive an award grant from the Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) Education Council.  

 

The Col Joe Kittinger Cup comes with a $5,000 prize from Mrs. Sherry Kittinger in Col Kittinger's memory and to carry on his legacy.  

• See all winners' information in right menu column. 
• See the 2024 awards slide deck with all awards. 

CONGRATULATIONS to the Kittinger Cup winner of the trophy and the $5,000 prize!

GLR-OH-131, Cuyahoga County Cadet Squadron

 

See all winner's information in right menu column. 

          The 2024 HABC Story... 

The fourth annual national AE cadet STEM challenge, the 2024 Col Joe Kittinger CAP National High-Altitude Balloon Challenge for Cadets (HABC), had 167 teams from all 8 regions and 49 wings registered to participate: 2024 HABC Participating Teams

• Over 1,500 cadets worked with 250 adults to create over 400 separate experiments which traveled to the edge of space.

The CAP National High-Altitude Balloon Challenge for Cadets is an internal program for cadet and/or composite squadrons. For squadrons that submitted their experiment capsules for launch by 19 July, their names were sent to Cadet Programs to be registered as having participated in the program for QCUA credit. 

         

                          (Cadets launching balloons.  Balloon 3 with astronaut Snoopy's burst photo.)

The 2024 HABC balloons were launched in Anderson, Indiana, on Saturday, 10 August. 

(The original 3 August launch was rescheduled to 10 August as per weather issue message from Capt. Bob Roberts - HABC program lead.) 

• Capt. Roberts led the live-streamed event on his Aerospace Education YouTube channel and included teams' pre-launch videos throughout the event. 

• The link to the recorded event is found HERE.  

• The list of teams on each balloon's payload box is HERE. (Balloon 3 was test balloon without teams' capsules, but had teams' artifact flown on it.)

Burst Altitudes: 

Balloon 1 - 94.326 ft   - Balloon 1 Data Spreadsheet

Balloon 2 - 90,338 ft   - Balloon 2 Data Spreadsheet

Balloon 3 - 96,883 ft   - Balloon 3 Data Spreadsheet (Balloon with most data)

Balloon 3's Packets Mission Data Spreadsheet

• See video with detailed explanations of the information needed for science experiment analysis regarding the balloons' latitude/longitude, temperature, acceleration, overall light intensity, and UV & IR levels, provided by NearSpace Education's Brandon Pearson. 

*** As discussed in the video, Brandon encourages cadets to use the data spreadsheets for each balloon, above, and to use balloon dashboard portal HERE to graph and interact with data. In that portal: 

Balloon 1 is Blue number 4120

Balloon 2 is Gold number 9210

Balloon 3 is Red number 1840

• Many thanks to the INWG's massive communications, ground, and air (plane and drone) teams (adults and cadets) for conducting a SAREX for balloon and payload tracking and payload retrieval. 

• All HABC teams that shipped experiments to the launch site are on the QCUA list sent to the Cadet Programs team on 10 August.   

• All teams submitted their last two deliverables: one best science experiment analysis slide and post-launch documentary video.  See all submission scoring rubrics for guidance and submission links in the HABC Program Guide. 

Click on the HABC Program Guide to find out all details about:

- the program;

- squadron registration information;

- HABC schedule and due dates; and

- guidance for each of the HABC component deliverables (mission patch; pre and post launch videos; and final science experiment report slide) 

this includes the Google docs links to submit each deliverable by its due date

 

For further information or questions, contact hab@capnhq.gov 

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
 

*_