# High Altitude Balloon Videos
High Altitude Balloon Videos are amateur clips shot from weather balloons drifting into the stratosphere, showing the curve of the Earth and the pitch-black sky of near-space[1]. What started as a niche amateur radio hobby in the 1980s exploded into a DIY viral genre in the late 2000s after MIT undergrads reached the edge of space using a $150 rig built around a consumer point-and-shoot camera.
## Origin
Amateur high altitude ballooning traces back to American radio hobbyist Bill Brown, callsign WB8ELK, who flew the first modern amateur radio balloon on August 15, 1987[4]. Through the 1990s the hobby stayed small and radio-focused, mostly a few amateur radio clubs in North America using the balloons as low-cost scientific test beds[1].
Bill Brown himself began publishing his own balloon footage on YouTube in January 2007, giving a wide public audience its first look at raw video from a full amateur mission and pulling the hobby beyond its ham radio origins[2].
- **Platform:** Amateur radio (source origin) / YouTube (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Bill Brown (WB8ELK)
- **Date:** 2007
## Overview
A typical flight lasts about two to three hours, cutting from a shaky ground release to a slow reveal of the curved horizon and a chaotic descent under parachute[2]. Rigs almost always pair a latex weather balloon with an insulated foam cooler holding a consumer camera and a GPS tracker for the recovery hike[3]. The signature shot is the moment the sky above the payload turns black while the horizon below stays bright blue, because at roughly 25 kilometers the air is too thin to scatter sunlight[1].
Amateur uploaders lean into that raw look, keeping the wide-angle lens distortion, the sudden pop at burst altitude and the tumbling parachute descent that follows[5].
## How It Spread
Toronto engineer Alexei Karpenko flew a full GPS, camera and sensor package to about 30 kilometers in October 2007, and less than two years later MIT students Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh's Project Icarus reached near-space using a Canon A470 point-and-shoot in a beer cooler for a total build cost of about $150[4]. That price point turned amateur high altitude balloon videos into a copycat viral trend, with clone launches appearing on YouTube and Vimeo[5].
Idaho teacher Paul Verhage, one of roughly 200 US hobbyists profiled by Universe Today, had personally launched about 50 balloons since 1996 carrying weather stations, Geiger counters and cameras, keeping per-flight costs under a thousand dollars[1]. By August 2012 the two video sites together hosted around 1,400 amateur uploads, and the aesthetic had been picked up by brands including Toshiba, Google's Droid line and Natural Ice beer for viral marketing spots[4].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is High Altitude Balloon Videos?
Amateur clips shot from weather balloon rigs drifting into the stratosphere, showing the Earth's curve and the black sky of near-space, typically at 25 to 30 kilometers altitude[1].
### Where did High Altitude Balloon Videos come from?
The hobby traces back to American ham radio operator Bill Brown (WB8ELK), who flew the first modern amateur radio balloon on August 15, 1987[4]. Video uploads took off after Brown began posting balloon footage to YouTube in January 2007[2].
### What does High Altitude Balloon Videos mean?
The term covers any amateur video shot from a camera lofted by a weather balloon to near-space altitudes, capturing the horizon curve and the pitch-black sky above 25 kilometers[1].
### How do you use High Altitude Balloon Videos?
It's a build project, not a remix template. Hobbyists tape a consumer camera and a GPS tracker inside an insulated foam cooler, tie it to a latex weather balloon filled with helium, launch, then chase the GPS signal to recover the payload after the balloon bursts at high altitude[3].
### Is High Altitude Balloon Videos still popular?
The peak viral moment was 2009 to 2012, when YouTube and Vimeo together hosted around 1,400 amateur uploads[4]. The hobby is still active among amateur radio clubs, school science programs and the roughly 200 US hobbyists profiled by Universe Today[1].
## References
1. [https://www.universetoday.com/11287/satellites-on-a-budget-high-altitude-balloons/]()
2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lie0diOhfdg]()
3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNI5jekQdsw]()
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/high-altitude-balloon-videos]()
5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6PSbUl_68k]()
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