Sunrise Photos from the Edge of Space shot by College Team

By Nancy Atkinson - January 28, 2011 at 10:06 AM UTC | Space Exploration
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A college-age team of space and photography enthusiasts have created a fully reusable capsule that can travel autonomously to the edge of space using high altitude balloons. To date, their capsule, named PURSUIT has had four flights, reaching altitudes ranging from 24,000 to 36,500 meters (80,000 to 120,000 feet.) "We wanted to fly capsules to the edge of space and capture the most difficult imagery that other teams didn't even bother trying," said Project Soar team leader David Gonzales II. "Our capsules shoot high resolution stills and shoot HD video of their incredible journeys."

Last fall, the team captured the stunning image above of a sunrise from space from about 25,000 meters above the Earth. "To our knowledge, Sunrise Soar II captured the highest resolution images of sunrise ever taken from the edge of space by a high altitude balloon flight," Gonzales told Universe Today.

[caption id="attachment_82924" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="A sunrise above most of Earth's atmosphere. Credit: Project Soar"]

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In images taken from over 36,000 meters, absent are the reddish sunrise colors that we see on Earth because of the atmosphere.

Their PURSUIT capsule cost about $500 to put together initially, but their total cost per flight is only $40.

The crew consists of twelve different students and recent graduates from various colleges. Gonzales said he formed Project Soar and put together the team as a hobby. The team hopes to do several more flights soon.

[caption id="attachment_82925" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="The Sunrise Soar team filling the balloon. Credit: Proejct Soar"]

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See more images and videos, and read detailed reports about the team's adventures at their Project Soar website.

[caption id="attachment_82926" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Success! The Sunrise Soar retrieves their capsule. Credit: Project Soar"]

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com