'Pretty cool:' Whitehorse students launch weather balloon

The mascot of Porter Creek Secondary Schoola stuffed ramis probably flying about 30 kilometresabove Whitehorse right now.

It's a passenger on a scientific device.

"Pretty cool experiment," saidNavarro Davies, a Grade 8 student at the school.

Students launched a weather balloonThursdaymorningaspart of the NationalHigh Altitude Balloon Experiment which isitself allied with the Global Space Balloon Challenge.

Two other northern teams are also registered, in Inuvik and Fort McPherson, N.W.T.

"Different funding bodies pay for the balloons, pay for the cameras, pay for the data collectors and send them out. People liftthem up to 100,000 feet and collect some data," said Dave Brown, a science teacher at the Porter Creek school.

The white balloon is the same type used byweather stations. It's carrying a Styrofoam box, strengthened with duct tapeand with a video camera peeking out the side.

"Mostly the picture of the curve of the earth is what we're after. It's quite beautiful," Brown said.

Roger Gillies,a tech teacher at the school,filed the appropriate papers with NavCanada before students waved goodbye to the balloon.

"We did call the tower just before launch to make sure everything was OK.It's all official," Gillies said.

The balloon has a tracking device and will likely travel between 50 and 300 kilometres.

Yukon's Capital Helicopters has offered toretrievethe camera so that students can later watch the footage in class.