Rocketry Planet

The Heene family of Ft. Collins, Colorado are shown here with their three children. Falcon, center, is reported to have taken off with the run-away balloon and is now missing.

MORE ON THIS STORY:
• SLIDESHOW: Fox News photos of balloon landing.

BRIGHTON, Colorado USA — A six-year-old boy is missing after a freak incident involving a weather balloon.  Falcon Heene is the son of Richard and Mayumi Heene, storm chasers who recently have appeared on the ABC reality TV show, "Wife Swap."

According to the show description from ABC, the mother and father take their three children out of school to go on storm chasing missions attempting to prove the father's theories about magnetic fields and gravity.  During these experiments, the family heads into the eye of the storm, launching model rockets to measure magnetic forces.

Falcon's two brothers, Ryo, age 7, and Bradford, age 8, were there when the experiment went awry.  According to multiple news reports, a mylar weather balloon took off, speeding high across Colorado skies today, and Falcon was reported to have become tangled up in the ropes tethering the balloon to the ground.

When the balloon finally made ground fall, no one was found, only the mylar balloon by itself.  Reports of objects falling to the ground shortly after the balloon took off are being made, but as of now, Falcon has not been found. Police are widening their ground search in hopes of finding the child alive.

In photos presented to the media, the Heene family is seen all together where each of the children are holding model rockets, and episodes of the show have shown model rocket launch activities.

According to the shows website, the family sleeps in their clothes so they can leap from bed and run after a storm at any given moment.  "When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm," it states on the site.

Reader comments:

#1 Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

My heart really goes out to the family in this tragedy. This is gut wrenching.

skycopp on 10-15-2009 05:42 PM

#2 Hoax! Was: Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

They found the boy at home while the news crews are still chasing an empty balloon.



JD

JDcluster on 10-15-2009 06:15 PM

#3 Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

They found him hiding in a box in the attic above the garage.

SecretSquirrel on 10-15-2009 06:15 PM

#4 Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

Hey, if I were six and I'd just accidentally let my father's 20' wide balloon loose, I'd hide in a box in the attic, too!

JordanT on 10-15-2009 06:50 PM

#5 Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

Quote:

My heart really goes out to the family in this tragedy. This is gut wrenching.

A helium cell the size of a car would not be able to lift a child...

Its only about 1 gram per L of helium.

New Ocean on 10-15-2009 06:54 PM

#6 Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

I just saw it on the news here (it's 1 a.m. in the morning), but in our news, the boy is still missing...oh well. I'm glad he wasn't flying with the ballon.

Tom Engelhardt on 10-15-2009 07:00 PM

#7 Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

Maybe there is something to be said for not rushing to the presses when something like this happens. Maybe the police should figure out a situation (logically) first. Now a family matter is a national issue that will probably be joked about on TV for the next week.

Also note that the parents seem to be getting their kids involved in pseudoscience which is not helping anyones credibility, and that they launch rockets into storms which violates so many regulations, making rocketry people again seem reckless. The background of these parents (being on tv, storm chasing, etc) makes me wonder if maybe, just maybe, they made the whole thing up to get some attention. Hopefully that is too far fetched.

Here is a video they made before this incident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBWJXXgaYBo (Not totally safe for work.)

New Ocean on 10-15-2009 07:56 PM

#8 Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

This is the end of helium balloons as we know it.

Chuck_Rudy on 10-15-2009 08:46 PM

#9 Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

Quote:

This is the end of helium balloons as we know it.

jderimig on 10-15-2009 09:27 PM

#10 Re: Article: 6 year old Colorado rocketeer missing in run-away balloon

Obviously some people did not watch a certain episode of myth busters?

Chrisn on 10-15-2009 10:59 PM

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