On Saturday 6 April 2013 students from the University of Warwick sent a CubeSat 30km into the stratosphere

Starting from near Welshpool, the CubeSat travelled high into the stratosphere, to over 30km above the Earth's surface, where the balloon popped and a parachute safely carried the CubeSat back to Earth. The prototype was successfully recovered from near Banbury following the 2 hour flight.

The CubeSat carried three cameras and a radio communications link to transmit data and images. The transceiver used was a XBee-PRO 868 operating in the licence exempt 868 MHz band (the UK amateur radio licence prohibits aeronautical operation).

“The successful test launch - and recovery - is said to pave the way towards a longer-term plan to put a small satellite, built almost entirely by undergraduate students in the School of Engineering, into low-earth orbit at around 2,000 km”,

“The eight students have been working for the past year on the Warwick University Satellite (WUSAT) Project, which has been building a 10cm CubeSat capable of carrying equipment including cameras and sensors.”

Read the article in The Engineer - http://www.theengineer.co.uk/channels/skills-and-careers/news/balloon-launch-for-students-prototype-satellite/1016026.article

WUSAT Warwick University Satellite Project - http://www.warwick.ac.uk/cubesat

WUSAT Winter 2013 Newsletter - http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/meng/wusat/media/wusat_newsletter_2013_winter.pdf