VGT2: Back in the Game

After two weeks of mystery, fraught with danger and uncertainty, and after overflying places ne’er before visited, The Prep’s STEM Class balloon VGT-2 emerged from a scarily long period of radio silence over Canada on Friday, between Lake Superior and the southern tip of Hudson’s Bay, on the way to completing its eighth circumnavigation of the earth. VGT-2’s first seven laps had gone rather uneventfully and predictably, with its flight taking it through the rather calm latitudes between the equator and the middle of Europe. However, two weeks ago as it left the East Coast of the US, wind currents shot it up above Ireland, 800 miles north of its customary path, then precipitously south east over Turkey, suddenly heading northeast towards Russia. It was there that it was “lost” for a week (who knows what goes on over Russia and China). In fact, even money was on its having met its demise, like its sibling VGT-1, which disappeared forever a month ago after passing over Chesapeake Bay as it completed its fourth lap. Last Wednesday, VGT-2 suddenly checked in near Fairbanks, Alaska, more than 1600 miles further north than on previous laps. In the days following it shot south east (in radio silence) towards the Great Lakes and over the next two days headed towards Boston, where it showed up Sunday morning, completing its unprecedented eighth lap and nearly 100 days “in orbit.”

     To learn about the entire project from the start and for interim updates, visit here.