“My stomach went upside down,” said Adams of the moment.

“I felt really defeated,” said Evans. “We went through other problems, but right before launch everything was working and then the worst thing that could have happened, happened in front of hundreds of people.”

But the day was not over for the Edgecumbe students: As soon as their balloon had escaped, they looked up to see other teams rushing toward them to try to help them salvage the mission. Students from the University of Portland offered the Edgecumbe students a spare weather balloon, and the Edgecumbe students were able to inflate it, attach their payload of electronics to the balloon and launch just 10 minutes behind their scheduled time.

Evans said the loss of their first balloon ended up helping the team because the University of Portland balloon they used was designed to lift the payload even higher than their original balloon, to a height of more than 100,000 feet.

“I didn’t think people would so quickly jump in and help us,” she said. “In the end, it worked out because everyone jumped in.”

“I felt so grateful those other people cared about our project too,” Adams said.