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Introduction Pico-11 was launched on 19/12/2025 and used the same 60-inch ‘cymylar’ balloon that worked well on the last flight. It also used a new tracker design that makes significant changes to the previous design. New Design We fixed all the issues we had with the previous design, while also making the board significantly smaller. We did this in part by moving the GPS module to the back of the PCB. We also moved the boost converter off the main PCB and replaced it with a simple 3.3 V LDO. This gives us much more flexibility when it comes to powering the tracker. ...

Introduction Pico-10 was launched on 24/09/2025 and used a new clear 60" ‘cymylar’ balloon purchased from Alibaba. At £40 for a pack of 20, this is the cheapest balloon we have used so far. The payload was identical to that of Pico-7 and reused the PCB from Pico-9. We used around 3.5g of free lift. Launch Day There was some intermittent cloud so we tried to time the launch so that the sky would be clear. After preparing the payload, we had to wait for a tractor to finish cutting the grass on the field. This gave the supercapacitor ample time to charge and we were able to receive a transmission before launching it. ...

Introduction Pico-9 was launched the morning Pico-8 started up for the fist day since launch. We reverted back to the design from Pico-7 which we knew worked. The weather seemed perfect: clear blue sky and only a light wind. The launch preparation went smoothly right up until we launched. The launch Upon releasing the balloon, the balloon initially rose off the ground to around 30m. It then seemed to get caught by a gust of wind and stop rising. It narrowly avoided some nearby houses and trees before disappearing from view. ...

Introduction Pico-8 was the first payload to use the new solar system on the new tracker, which uses only 4 cells compared to the 6 we normally use. In the new design, the PCB “arms” that hold the panels are soldered directly to the tracker board. This can be seen in the photo for Pico-6. The total payload mass ended up being 8.67g, which is the lightest so far. We used the PartyWoo 50" again as it had promising results in the Pico-7 flight. ...

Introduction Pico 7 was the second flight of the new tracker and included many of the improvements mentioned in the last post. We also used a 20F 3.8V supercap on VIN. We also used the same balloon but with a lower free lift at 2g. Launch day The launch day had significant cloud cover again, but it was bright enough to transmit all the way up. The ascent went smoothly until it reached 7,300m when it started to descend. This was likely due to icing. Luckily it started to rise again at 2,500m and didn’t reach the ground. It went dark before reaching float but it woke up the following morning at a float altitude of 11.5km based on the pressure. As it was already over Ukraine there was significant GPS spoofing. ...