This has been done a dozen times already. Originally they had a college team in Edmonton, CA did this with a rep from Cannon who delivered a modified camera which made the trip all the way into orbit.

@1: Don't be a party pooper, man. Imagine yourself as an 8 year-old kid doing this with his dad and don't act like it wouldn't be the coolest thing ever.

wow, @1 - you take missing the point to a whole new level

@2

Im sorry, it is rather cool, dont get me wrong. But its been done many many times. Its not news worthy unless its being done by someone at Cal Anderson Park.

This is awesome.

Okay, definitely good on them, but saying this weather balloon was "sent into space" is highly inaccurate. The international "boundary" for space is 100 Km or about 62 miles, as established by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), which is the sanctioning body for all aerospace record attempts. NASA & USAF on the other hand award astronaut pins to anyone reaching 50 miles altitude or more. This balloon reached an altitude of only 19 miles (100,000 ft), which, while certainly impressive, falls far short of "going into space".

@4: and this isn't news, it's the slog.
The fact that anyone can do something like this now by themselves with stuff they can easily procure, is just cool in itself. Did you lose you sense of wonder recently or were you born without that organ?

I don't know. My dad helped me rebuild a 1968 Camaro. The camera balloon is pretty cool, but can you peel out with it?

That iPhone probably has more computing power than NASA had in its mainframe when it flew to the moon in the 1960s.

@9:

Probably not the mainframes, but definitely more than the onboard computers...

@6 Ground Control to Captain Buzzkill... Ground Control to Captain Buzzkill...

Such a great father-son thing. Thanks Humpy.

Man. Makes my water-seeds-to-see-which-ones-germinate science project look kinda lame. Though I guess that's damning with faint praise. That lucky kid is going to remember it forever. Very cool.

This is pretty cool, but how much was the kid actually involved?

My dad spent countless hours with me wrestling, rough-housing, and playing catch. I'm not the slightest bit envious.

This is great, you guys are lame for not recognizing an awesome feat of childhood education. I think you're just jealous.

COMTE's right about the official definition(s) of "space," but gosh, you could see the curve of the earth! Neato!

@12:

That's MAJOR Buzzkill. If your going to brutally paraphrase a Bowie song to make a lame insult, at least try to get the rank correct.

Awesomesauce.

The "curvature of the earth" supposedly seen here is mostly lens distortion. At one point the horizon looks concave.

At least that brat has a dad. He's ahead of me there. I only had a biofather.

@18 Not that it matters, but I wasn't trying to paraphrase Bowie... and you're still a complete buzzkill.

So you wanna go down to the orphanage later and tell the kids there's no Santa Clause?

Please stop falling in love, having sex, bearing children. It has been done before. Many many times.

@22 people have told kids that before. Many times.

Too cool.