This breathtaking video documents Brooklyn-based cinematographer Luke Geissbuhler's quest with his son to launch an iPhone 4 and an HD video camera into space using a weather balloon. The mission was a success, and the footage is absolutely gorgeous.

Geussbuhler launched the balloon from Newburgh, New York, and it climbed at a rate of 25 feet per second to 19 miles above the surface of the earth just an hour later. The balloon burst and the package containing the iPhone and the camera fell back to the ground on a parachute.

The father-son team tracked the package using the iPhone's GPS (go MobileMe!) transmitter and found it in a tree 30 miles north of its launch location. They successfully extracted the video and edited it into what you see below.

Geissbuhler posted a beautiful slideshow of space images taken by the craft to his website, the Brooklyn Space Program. He's also selling t-shirts and other merch to raise funds for a sophomore voyage.







Image courtesy of Brooklyn Space Program, Luke Geissbuhler

[Via NYMag]