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PRESS RELEASE FORIMMEDIATERELEASE
PROJECT EOS - LAUNCH!
After several abortive attempts to launch the Intrepid Spaceman this year, the team
from Queen Elizabeth School Wimborne had Saturday the 15th October down as the
last date to make the attempt this year as cleared by the CAA.
At T minus 20 minutes and
counting, everybody in
position, the countdown was
halted when the Raspberry
Pi computer communicating
with the Hab Hub tracker
system switched off without
warning. Batteries were
changed, connections
checked but no fault could
be detected. Over an hour
later the unit came back on
line. IT teacher Mr Paul
Calvert was very concerned
but decided to resume the
countdown and go for
launch!
Consequently on
a sunny Saturday
morning the team
and their
teachers
assembled for
the launch in the
school playing
fields.
Final checks were undertaken and Action man with the payload
was released at precisely 12:21pm. The payload and Action Mans
capsule were ripped away by the prevailing southerly wind as the
chase teams scrambled to their vehicles for the pursuit.
Following the spacecraft on the Hab Hub tracker at base was Ben
Barnes and IT teacher Mr Nigel Poulton. All was going well;
Action Man had just flown through 40,000ft travelling upwards at
a rate of 6 metres per second. The internal temperature of the
payload was down to 0.2C, the batteries were showing a steady
5.9v everything seemed to be going ‘A-okay’. Suddenly GPS
contact with the payload was lost over Tidworth, west of
Andover. The chase cars could now only track the carrier signal
of the spacecraft. The project team were assisted by people on
the Internet Relay Channel on Hab Hub who were also tracking
the payload and had a good signal of the spaceman’s descent at
Sunningwell, South West of Oxford. Unfortunately, they could
only get a lock on the carrier but had no GPS information, so they
didn’t know his exact position. The chase teams ditched the cars
and carried on tracking by foot. The team managed to (DF
‘direction find) the signal minutes before it stopped when Action
Man landed. He landed at 3.05pm having flown for 2 hours 34
minutes. In that time he had managed to reach a height of
115,000ft!
Good Luck!
Thats our Intrepid Spaceman!
Lift off!
On the launch pad
www.intrepidsecurity.com

2. The Intrepid Spaceman at115,000ft
Everyone assumed the payload had stopped transmitting because it
had been damaged during the landing and so after an hour’s fruitless
searching, the teams retired to the Fox inn on Boars Hill to see if
they could get any news from the other trackers. No luck.
However, the project team later learned that the transmitter was still
active and had they followed the exact direction of the last signal
they would have been able to reacquire the signal and home in on
Action Man’s position. They also later found out that they were
following a direct path to the payload but were approximately three
miles short of the actual landing site.
Assuming Action Man and the payload were
lost, the teams packed all the gear away and
started to drive home. They had only been on
the road for twenty minutes when Mr Calvert
received a call from Mike Newman, near
Brighthampton, to say he had found the
spacecraft in his field! Mr Calvert raced back to
recover the spaceman and was greeted by some
very curious adults and two very excited boys.
Mike Newman said they wouldn’t normally go
into that field until April the following year and
had gone out that Saturday blackberry picking.
Gemma his daughter in law and her two sons
Max and Jacob suggested they drive round the
field before heading back home in their tractor/
trailer. Mike said ‘It was only from the slight
height of my tractor seat could I see the bright
gold covering of the spacecraft and shortly
after, the bright orange of the parachute.
Crash landing!
Recovery site
GPS signal lost at
Tidworth

3. For more information on the project please call Intrepid Security on: 01372 736 980
or email info@intrepidsecurity.com. Or visit www.intrepidsecurity.com
Mr Calvert said ‘Mike very kindly invited us in for
a cup of tea and explained what had happened.
From left to right: Queen Elizabeth School IT teacher Paul Calvert, Dr Gemma
Newman, Max Newman, Mike Newman,Jacob Newman and Sue Newman.
The last word comes from Dr Gemma Newman, who
sent this to Mr Calvert following the discovery:
Hi
I thought you'd like to see Max's adventure story in his
learning log - they plan to talk about it to the class! A lot
of very happy five year olds!
Gemma x
Seems like the team at Queen Elizabeth have inspired
some inquisitive minds......to infinity and beyond!
It was then I discovered the payload electronics were
still working and transmitting the lost carrier signal.
Mike and his family, Sue, Gemma and her sons, Max
and Jacob were fascinated by the project and I took the
time to explain how it worked. We have since kept in
touch and have sent them pictures from the video of
the flight. They were truly amazed with the result.’
So ends an amazing adventure. There are many
lessons to be learned and much to be re-examined and
evaluated, particularly the loss of GPS data. Hopefully
the project team will take what they have learned and
apply it to the next exciting mission.
We will be posting images and video clips of Action
Man’s Intrepid flight during the next few weeks on
Facebook and twitter.
We found a real spaceman!