At age 9 Jason Brand launched his first home made “space mission”, a high altitude balloon along with his father Robert Brand, a long time space enthusiast. This was followed by a number of launches, including a recent flight that saw his “astronaut”, a fluffy toy chicken travel to 33km in altitude before plumetting to earth at 400km/h and landing in a remote location in NSW.

Now at age 12, he is planning to break the sound barrier with an ambitious plan to release a radio control glider from a high altitude balloon over 40km above the earth. Dubbed Project Thunderstruck, he hopes that his 2.5m glider will reach 1800kph in a dive before leveling out and gliding to earth.

Jason is also a cadet of the Australian Air League at Riverwood Squadron in NSW and plans to  fly solo on his 15th birthday. To learn more about Jason’s project, visit the website at http://projectthunderstruck.org/