George K. Allison ‘51 is program advisor to Spaceport Indiana, which operates throughout Indiana with two main programs. Its high altitude balloon program introduces junior high and high school students to STEM subjects. Students design projects and participate in the balloon launch. The balloon may reach altitudes as high as 102,000 feet. Its GPS system allows students to track the balloon throughout its flight via satellite linkage. After recovery, the students can see the results of their experiments.

A current project is to build a reinforced balloon to circumnavigate the globe. A prototype with self-regulated altitude adjustment reached Limoges, France before violent storms destroyed it.

Spaceport Indiana also conducts adult classes in selection, maintenance and operation of drones. It uses its proprietary software to launch, route, control and retrieve both fixed- and rotary-wing drones. Allison and the principals of Spaceport Indiana have been working with drones for the past 10 years.

Click here to view the Spaceport Indiana website.