After days looking at the sky, Ralph Bruckschen decides to launch his near-space probe Saturday morning. 
Bruckschen is a onetime volunteer for the California-based JP Aerospace, a company working to create practical space travel by using lighter-than-air vehicles -- essentially big balloons -- as launch vehicles. His own project, cobbled together for demonstration at the Chaos Communication Camp here, involves just a single balloon, carrying a small payload of a digital camera, cell phone, batteries and a GPS device inside a light foam-core box.
A crowd quickly gathers as Bruckschen begins inflating the big hydrogen balloon in front of one of the old airfield's bunkers here. Before long, a globe nearly 8 feet wide bobs above our heads, with a few crew members frantically working on electronics which seem to be going on strike at the last minute.
JP Aerospace has run several dozen tests like this in past, with the most successful carrying their payloads of cameras and mini-experiments up near the 100,000 foot level. The company hopes ultimately
to build a stationary platform at about 140,000 feet, to be reached by a balloon-style ascender vehicle, and from which a space-going vehicle can be launched.
Today's goals are far simpler -- Bruckschen wants simply to show the practicality of reaching the upper atmosphere by balloon, and bringing back photographic evidence.
The silence stretches as the crew works on the electronics. A spark goes up, and the crew member tying wires together jumps back with a start. Bruckschen smiles ruefully at the crowd, and apologizes.
"We're waiting for the SMS," he explains. "That cell phone is a bastard."
A few more minutes more, and disaster strikes: Wiggling free of its mooring the balloon suddenly 
jumps into the sky, floating freely into the air without its payload. A moan of disappointment goes up from the crowd, but Bruckschen digs in his bag for another balloon. "Always have doubles," he says.
But it's too late, a storm is by now approaching quickly. Before the second balloon can be filled, a downpour starts, and the crew runs for cover.
A few hours later, a second attempt shows the advantage of working with balloons instead of rockets. One balloon lost is no catastrophe; Bruckschen reappears, reinflates the second balloon, and with no mishaps this time lets the little payload float into the cloudy sky, drawing a cheer from the crowd.
Will it make to the full 100,000 feet and back safely? Impossible yet to say. Nor is it sure what kind of pictures will be returned. But anyone who finds a little white box with a phone number on it, which looks like it's parachuted out of the sky – be sure to call that number, and we'll all see what evidence results.
(Photos: 1: The first attempt; 2: The payload; 3: Liftoff)
