LIVE update: Follow the balloon [HERE], and see the latest tweets from Dexter Industries below (newest first):
#spacepi Picture shortly after takeoff! pic.twitter.com/VRNa0gmMdq
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
Payload intact! #spacepi pic.twitter.com/Oiu9urBhyD
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
It is way up in a tree. #spacepi pic.twitter.com/eR1s2D93cP
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
#spacepi suddenly stopped sending signals. Wonder if it was taken?
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
BRICKPI has shown up!! 10:05 it’s somewhere in Richmond. Here we come (or follow!) #spacepi
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
T+2:00. This is all we have so far. Tracking lost? #spacepi Where’d ya go #spacepi? pic.twitter.com/Ry8eS8xNuv
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
No update for 20 min. @Raspberry_Pi lost in space? #spacepi #nasa ?
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
We are airborne and tracking thee brickpi! #spacepi
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
Launch! pic.twitter.com/tcPm7vIH6l
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
Launch prep. pic.twitter.com/V4yaIZk3LT
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
Spot tracker is up. Follow #spacepi progress here: http://t.co/CP6yGGJngr
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
Launch crew at waffle house. #spacepi #dedicated #onesmallstep pic.twitter.com/lg2pj2gAL6
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
5:45. Blacksburg, VA. T-1.5 hours. Software success. Off to IHOP with the #spacepi
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
Testing the @Raspberry_Pi and @Brickpi payload. T-1.5 hours. #spacepi pic.twitter.com/y66UhcSWYQ
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
Awake in Blacksburg VA 0c and 5mph wind. Testing software. #spacepi
— Dexter Industries (@dexterind) December 17, 2013
—–
The interesting thing with Kickstarter stretch goals is that they may just be reached. Dexter Industries, the company behind the BrickPi project, possibly never imagined that they could exceed their $2,000 funding goal by so many times. As of June 17, they raised $127,000.
They’ve used a lot of the extra funding to make the BrickPi shield more capable and powerful while keeping the price the same, and it looks like they’re using the rest to meet their ambitious stretch goals.
This is the original stretch goal:
- $75,000 – Win the Space Race. We will launch a BrickPi contraption into near-space via high altitude balloon method. We will produce an entertaining video and provide bill of materials and instructions for how to do it yourself. The BrickPi Project becomes the SpaceX of the Raspberry Pi world.
Dexter Industries announced that they’ll be launching a Raspberry Pi with a BrickPi into near space today! I’ll be updating this blog as soon as I get updates, but you can also get live updates via @dexterind #spacepi.
The BrickPi shields have now been shipped to their backers (see what I used it for here). It’s now also available on Amazon.
