Well, almost. The year 6, 7 and 8 pupils launched a weather balloon from Gibbston yesterday into the upper reaches of the stratosphere carrying several cameras so they could see the curvature of Earth from above New Zealand.
It was hoped the balloon would rise to about 25km above New Zealand, but this could not be confirmed as contact with the device was lost at 13km.
The "near space expedition" was part of a Port Chalmers School science project on upper atmosphere exploration.
Project co-ordinator Chris Hilder said the balloon took about 20 minutes to reach the stratosphere, and believed it was blown about 90km east across Otago before plummeting back to Earth near Ranfurly.
"It was a really fantastic launch. It went off like a rocket."
After initially failing, the GPS module attached to the balloon began emitting a signal which allowed the group to search for it. They located it almost exactly where they had predicted it would land.
It was hoped the photos from the cameras would be able to be developed today to reveal where the balloon had gone.
"It's been a really exciting project and the team are really enthusiastic about it . . . Future missions are possible," Mr Hilder said.
