The year 6, 7 and 8 pupils launched a weather balloon from Gibbston on Sunday into the upper reaches of the stratosphere, carrying two film cameras they bought second-hand for about $1.
Project co-ordinator Chris Hilder said the balloon took about 20 minutes to reach the stratosphere, and he believed it was blown about 90km east across Otago before returning to Earth near Ranfurly.
It was hoped the cameras would photograph the curvature of Earth during its journey 25km above New Zealand.
Unfortunately, very few of the photographs were recognisable, or in focus.
Mr Hilder said even if the cameras had not snapped any pictures, the school science project on upper atmosphere exploration would still have been worthwhile.
He said there were many hurdles they had to overcome just to get the balloon in the air.
And once it was airborne, the attached GPS locator stopped transmitting and they lost track of the balloon.
However, soon after it landed, the transmitter started working again and the cameras were located near Ranfurly, as predicted.
"We were lucky just to find it again. We've learnt a lot from this exercise," he said.
It was hoped the school would attempt the project again next year, he said.
