Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute students recently earned first place in the 2025 North Carolina Space Grant High-Altitude Ballooning Competition.
The team achieved the highest overall score by excelling in project reports, technical presentations, payload development, flight performance, and recovery.
Students from a variety of CCC&TI’s programs participated in the months-long competition, combining knowledge from electronics, computer science, physics, biology, and other fields to build and launch their own high-altitude balloon.
The team successfully launched a custom-built payload that reached an altitude of 87,550 feet, or 16.5 miles above earth, capturing environmental data and near-space imagery.
The team consisted of, Ralph Anderson (Biology Payload), Ebbon Cook (3D Printing and Modeling), Marina Herrera (Telemetry, Outreach, and Secretary), Thomas Manning (Team Captain, payload and outreach), Elijah Nash (Biology and Payload) Ronald Perez Cardenas (Microcontrollers), Alex Vandivier (Outreach), Lex Phillips (Programming), Catori Wilkie (Outreach), and Cameron Williams (Payload design and layout).
In addition to meeting the competition’s required payload specifications, the team also developed and flew an individual payload designed in-house. Students were responsible for submitting multiple technical reports, delivering mission design presentations, and defending their decisions to a technical advisor throughout the fall and spring semesters.
Following the flight, the team tracked the payload to the upper branches of a tree estimated to be between 75 and 100 feet tall.
CCC&TI has participated in the North Carolina Space Grant High-Altitude Ballooning Competition every year since 2022.
For more information about the project, CCC&TI programs of study or other information, visit www.cccti.edu or call 828-726-2200 (Caldwell) and 828-297-3811 (Watauga).
