Skip to main content

Lost GoPro found two years later, incredible footage of Earth finally retrieved

Grand Canyon from the Stratosphere! A Space Balloon Story
When some students get together to attach a GoPro camera to a weather balloon, send it up into the stratosphere, and lose track of it, you might think the story ends there. In 2013, Bryan Chan and his friends in Arizona did exactly this, but thanks to a woman on a hike they’re now able to share the amazing footage their rig captured with the world.

Chan shared the money shot he and his four friends retrieved from the GoPro in a reddit post in the /r/pics subreddit. The shot, taken above the Grand Canyon, shows a stunning view of a blue and brown Earth. In a reply to a comment, Chan shared the background story.

The project took a couple months of planning and was nearly scrapped because of higher-than-expected helium costs, according to Chan. He and his friends used the GPS on a smartphone and a tracking app to get updates on the rig’s location via SMS when it returned to Earth.

“We planned our June 2013 launch at a specific time and place such that the phone was projected to land in an area with cell coverage,” Chan wrote in his reddit comment. “The problem was that the coverage map we were relying on (looking at you, AT&T) was not accurate, so the phone never got signal as it came back to Earth, and we never heard from it.”

Two years later, a woman who (funny enough) works at AT&T found their smartphone while on a hike. She brought it back to an AT&T store and identified the SIM card’s owner. The rest is online viral history.

The GoPro rig hit a maximum altitude of 98,664 feet and was in flight for 98 minutes. It landed about 50 miles away from the launch site.

To see the drop tests, 3D-printed chassis, and actual footage from the flight, see the video above.

Editors' Recommendations

Jason Hahn
Jason Hahn is a part-time freelance writer based in New Jersey. He earned his master's degree in journalism at Northwestern…
The 5 best new GoPro Hero 10 Black features I love to use
GoPro Hero 10 Firmware V1.2.

When I reviewed the GoPro Hero 10 Black in September, I couldn’t help but heap praise on it. Though it’s clearly an evolutionary update to the Hero 9, the Hero 10 goes far enough to offer very real advantages over its predecessor. Between its 5.3K 60 frames per second, upgraded image stabilization, and impressive cloud storage integration, it’s certainly the most powerful action camera available right now.

However, GoPro hasn’t rested on its laurels over the past several months. Over that time, they’ve offered major firmware upgrades and even a post-launch hardware upgrade. With the Hero 10 so dramatically changed since its original launch, it’s worth taking a look at to see what else you can expect from the camera here at the tail end of 2021.
Max Superview
The GoPro Hero 10 features a 4:3 format sensor, but most video these days is displayed in a 16:9 aspect ratio. That typically means either cropping the image or putting up with black bars on the side of the display. GoPro’s Superview mode stretches the edges of the image so that you can take advantage of the entire 4:3 sensor area, but display it on a 16:9 screen at the cost of a fisheye effect.

Read more
GoPro boosts Hero 10 performance with new firmware and Enduro battery
GoPro Hero 10 Front Screen.

One of my few complaints when reviewing the GoPro Hero 10 Black was its somewhat fleeting battery life, and though I haven’t personally encountered the issue, many users have reported problems limiting recording times due to overheating. GoPro seems to have heard that message loud and clear, as they have announced a major firmware update for the camera that aims to solve the problems as well as a brand new Enduro battery.

The firmware (which will be available by the end of October) introduces three new video performance modes designed to maximize the Hero 10’s performance in different scenarios. Maximum video performance mode prioritizes high resolution, frame rate, and image quality. Extended battery mode limits resolution and frame rate to maximize recording times and battery life, while tripod/stationary video mode provides high performance when the camera is stationary, and there isn’t any airflow to cool the camera.

Read more
GoPro drops teaser video for Hero10 camera ahead of Thursday’s reveal
watch gopros teaser video for the new hero10 action camera gopro hero 10

GoPro is set to reveal the latest iteration of its popular action camera on Thursday, September 16.

The California-based company has just dropped a slick teaser video (below) for the Hero10 Black. The 57-second production, titled A New Era of GoPro, shows a slew of beautifully cinematic and highly dramatic action shots (you wouldn’t really expect anything less) as GoPro attempts to create a buzz around its latest product release.

Read more