UPDATE, MAY 19: Check out the fantastic conclusion! Here's the video.

UPDATE, MAY 17: Yesterday the spacecraft was located and retrieved from a treetop! There are amazing photos on the Chase in Space blog. We will post a link to the video when that's available.

UPDATE, MAY 15: Reportedly, the balloon is lost in a "really dense swamp" somewhere near Sparta, GA. Rescuers turned back last night ("the sun was starting to go down and it's still turkey hunting season until tomorrow," reads the blog post), but plan to regroup today. Hang tough, balloon!

Chase in Space, a project developed by the Chase Street Elementary School Engineering Club to send a camera-equipped weather balloon into the atmosphere, celebrated a successful launch earlier today. Below, watch video of the liftoff:

From the Chase in Space blog:

Chase in Space is a project of the Chase Street Elementary School Engineering Club. The goal of Chase in Space is to design, build, and launch a capsule that will fly high enough to capture images of the earth's curvature (from the edge of SPACE!) We will use a helium-filled weather balloon to lift the capsule to a height of approximately 90,000 ft above the surface of the earth. Two GoPro video cameras will be used to capture high definition video footage. A small computer processor will log temperature, pressure, GPS coordinates, ground speed, and altitude data throughout the flight, When the balloon reaches maximum height, it will expand enough to burst-an attached parachute will allow the capsule to fall gently to Earth. An onboard GPS tracker will transmit a signal (under ~30,000 ft.) that will allow the recovery team to locate the capsule on the ground. The entire flight should take between 3-4 hours.

Track the balloon's progress here.