One hell of a view! It could only be made better in 4k and we'd love to hook you up with a HERO4 Black for your next flight.

From Reddit: The whole project took myself and four friends a couple months of planning. We almost canceled the whole thing because helium cost 4x more than we were budgeting. As for the communications and attempted recovery (warning, about to get technical): We used GPS on a smartphone to continuously log the phone's location on its memory card. The standard GPS receiver these days can track your phone well above 100,000 ft - there used to be a limitation of 60,000 ft but that was recently lifted. The harder issue was to figure out how the phone can communicate to us. We used an app (myTracks or something similar, I forgot) to have the phone text us its GPS location once it got signal as it was returning to Earth (about ~3000 ft altitude). 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. 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. We didn't know this was the problem at the time - we thought our trajectory model was far off and it landed in a signal dead zone (turns out the model was actually quite accurate). The phone landed ~50 miles away from the launch point, from what I recall. It's a really far distance considering there's hardly any roads over there! TWO YEARS LATER, in a twist of ironic fate, a woman who works at AT&T was on a hike one day and spotted our phone in the barren desert. She brings it to an AT&T store, and they identify my friend's SIM card. We got the footage and data a few weeks later!

3:00 The way how the balloon pops and all those parts fly like flower petals or like a flock of birds. Also perfect timing of the music! Beautiful shot!

WTF Who could dislike this video, i mean, HOW could you dislike this kind of beautiful video? haters? haters of what? space? Earth? the internet still amaze me everyday

Great video and amazing story! Congrats!

When I come back to this video a week from now, I expect to see at least 500,000 views. EDIT: Ok in less than 2 days it hit 500,000 easy. Lets see if this can hit 1 million. EDIT #2: Wow in a few hours it JUMPED from 500,000 to 1 million. At this rate it's going to hit 2 million before the weekend is over. FINAL EDIT: Ok this officially went viral. Congrats to the people who shot this video, you deserve every cent you make from this.

Although I have seen many videos like this, it amazes me every single time.

The balloon exploded and the camera turn around and said: FUCK

thats just insane..how did the camera even survive that shit?! and lucky no one got a gopro smashed in the head lol..crazy video though

What an amazing experience for these friends/students! Kudos to the lady who found the balloon and cameras and did the effort to get it back to them!

I genuinely sobbed at this video. This was really beautiful.

This video freaks me tf out. I love space but it terrifies me to no end.

Amazing story and amazing shot

I like the way the video completely fails to mention the camera was missing and not found for 2 years or the mention of the story of how it was found.

grabbing popcorn, and preparing for all the flat earth comments... BRB

I love Arizona so much I love every inch of it and know it well . It was awesome to see it from that balloon.

Amazing, glad the phone was eventually found!

When the balloon popped, I thought the camera was like 'NOOO MY BALOOON!' when it tilted back to see the balloon had burst. XD

Thank you for introducing me to Matt Corby. I can never repay the debt.

Awesome video!! I am glad your camera was returned so you could finish your project and show this video to the World!!

This is the coolest thing I have seen this year, great song choice too.

This is really incredible.

Incredible view!

When the camera pans down the earth looks concave

It's crazy how this video shows how crazy big Earth and the Grand Canyon are, yet 2 years later, in the middle of all of that nothing, someone happened to come across the cell phone and camera in the middle of the desert and know what to do with it. What are the odds.

This made me kind of emotional. Great work guys. Do better next time AT&T!!!

Awesome. Almost Zen like how the camera sat there for two years undisturbed when it landed. It was a grand experiment, well planned. Loved the team work. Trajectory mapping was really cool. Way to go guys!

That was today's "high"light! Thanks for the innovation.

"The footage was found two years later" just... WOW

Congratulations! I just helped a friend with our own balloon launch! Isn't it so damn fun when ya finally find the cargo after landing? One piece of advice. instead of frame interpolation for your time lapse, use frame dropping. The ghosting of overlaid frames is rather distracting. Cheers!

I've heard my dad tell me this story in the car BEFORE I even saw this video. And when I did, it was more magical than I expected.

Love young people that look at the sky. Very good. All the best.

You guys need orange jumpsuits.

flat eye level horizon bitcheeeesssss !!!! :D

Thank you for the epic view of the Grand Canyon Lichtenberg Figure! Your view shows the distinct charge separation left behind from what I believe was an overhead diocotron instability moving over this area and heavily involved in forming the canyon and surrounding areas in antiquity.

I'm not surprised by the images. I am astonished to have sent back the equipment.

Too bad something similar couldn't be done in our oceans as we know more about the moon than what's in our oceans.

Is that the curvature of Earth at 1:39? Can you send up a balloon without a fish-eye lens?

The point where the balloon breaks and the camera starts to fall is amazing. Some impressive views, for sure!!

This is effing INCREDIBLE!!!! Awesome job on this, and yay to the lady who found it!!!! Totally inspiring.

Amazing how a video that amazing could be paired with a song that awful. My senses are at war right now.

What popped the balloon? Looked like a giant light when it turned over after popping. Amazing footage tho, so breath taking. Thank you for sharing it with the world

Awesome. Thanks for the upload.

That rocks, thanks for all your hard work in bringing that to the rest of us.

what is name of music?

too bad they used a fisheye lense, it almost looks like a globe sometimes :D ... but in fact ... the horizon is flat and at eye level the whole way up !

It's great to see you guys pull this off. Thank you!

how can someone dislike this? i don't understand....it's the most beautiful thing i've seen in a while

amazing view!! very flat earth too, all the round curvy crap going on is the camera lens. sphere planet my ass!!

... Please tell me you're not using Frame-Blending to "smooth out" a timelapse... video is blurrier than it needs to be. Other than that, awesome video. Makes me want to do something similar...

This is amazing! The whole story, the video, the music. Thank you for sharing it.

The Grand Canyon is such a beautiful place. Went there in Winter and it was out of this world. Looking at it from space makes it seem even better.

Do you need FAA clearance to send something above a certain altitude?

1:55 flatearth boys

Absolutely breathtaking images!! Congrats to Tyler and the team!!

so great guys ! it must be amaizing when u realize " we are able to make pictures from outta space"

Fish eye lens. Clearly visible how the horizon goes up and down

Why the hell is people saying Earth is flat? Lmao

Been to GC numerous times...perhaps my favorite place. Thanks for the great views. Just wonderful!!!

Congratulations. Creativity and curiosity to the max!

7 aliens have disliked this video.

why does eveyone use a fish eye lense on these cameras.

outstanding, glad you got it all back ... eventually

FANTASTIC effort, thanks so much for sharing it!!!!

what is the name of the song? my wife likes it so much.

Why there's no stars?

This is completely amazing-THX!!!

Love it! The choice of songs is Perfect!!! Good job building the chassis that didn't break apart on impact.

Metaphor for life...it rises until it bursts into little bits of white heaven. And then it falls. Or sex. Either one...same deal.

what was all that white stuff at 3:02

Omg, I love this so much! Fun song too! She is so beautiful mother earth.

WOWWW! AMAZING!

To bad fish eye or else could see earths not a globe well you sort of can see it's not the lens flexing lol

why is this video cut? what are you hiding? What did you see in space that we shouldnt see?

Amazing that with the motion of the camera goes from a round horizon to a flat one, and sometimes the space above the earth looks like it could have become a round globe!

Everyone needs 2 see this. Magnificent

AND WHERE ARE 25 000 SATELITES? CANT SEE 1 ON THIS VIDEO...

It's flat :D

Thank you for such a positive video! I love the way you share your creativity with us! Thank you!

Excellent work. When it starting falling my heart jumped into my mouth, i felt like i was falling. Brilliant footage.

The flight was 1 hour 38 minutes , if the earth was spinning at 1,000 mph it should have landed well over a thousand miles away at the minimum ?? thats common sense , however it appears it landed only 40 or 50 miles away ??

The earth is a geo-stationary FLAT plane.

This is an amazing video. It shows the determination and true nature of humans - that there is always something to discover, to conquer, to create, to plan.

Great work guys, loved the view and the footage! Gratz!

from 2.20 and on you can see the effects of a fish-eye lens. The curve goes the other way if the camera tilts. Earth is flat.

**FAKE!** Earth appears round in this video, when the bible clearly states the Earth is flat.

Breathtaking. You guys are too cool!

it's so rare to find such an impressive video like this on youtube, excellent job!!!!

the earth is flat

Flat earth

I loved the panoramic shot of the horizon when it was so many miles high. Great stuff!

These are my favorite type of videos on KZfaq.. They're so interesting to me.

Fake.

Wonderful , nice experience ! BRAVO

Loved the trajectory data at the end....really told the story of the journey.

Great job, guys!!! Thank you so much! Im from Brazil, Recife-PE. My morning is better now because of you! ;)

Congratulações. Projeto perfeito.

congratulations people...for getting your cam back with footage, exciting stuff

Congrats.. and good luck finding the video, a good soul found and called to return the camera, so you could share to the world this vid. A always im amazed how beautiful our planet is, really.. thanks for sharing this.. well done again.

smart and beautiful , thank you guys