The JSCARC club is fortunate to have a ham radio balloonist of great acclaim- John Maca AB5SS. John has been experimenting, developing, participating and deploying ham radio trackers and sensors on balloons for over 30+ years.
As previously posted, he spearheaded our first JSC student intern balloon project for Summer 2025 interns. One of the balloons, KI5CWE, had remained aloft for over 56 days from it’s initial deployment on July 29th.
John has a unique touch of art and expertise for keeping pico balloons aloft as evidenced with his current amateur radio balloon circumnavigations today. Here’s a narrative update acknowleding John’s AB5SS-163 pico balloon as reported by Walter Holmes K5WH from the South Texas Balloon Launch Team “update” email:
South Texas Balloon Launch Team update.
We are having great flights from AB5SS-163 and AF5LI-9, as they zip across the planet.
AB5SS-163 is still holding well around 44,500 feet with very reliable updates every day. Another great flight of John’s. it’s already been around 5 or 6 times now. It’s working so well we’re losing count. Especially when it cheated on one pass. Where instead of just flying Easterly around like normal, it went up over the North pole, and dropped down over Canada Taking a short cut.
Congratulations to John on this remarkable ongoing adventure as his balloon AB5SS-163 continues to remain aloft (122 days) and circling the world. It’s currently off the northern coast of Japan.
We’re looking forward to the JSCARC next student intern balloon build that John will be leading next month. Clearly, John has mastered the art of keeping these balloon in the air!
To continue to track AB5SS-163’s exciting flight, click here