The Pella Explores Near Space, or PENS, project held a launch Tuesday morning at Pella Christian High School. The balloon reached heights of more than 87,000 feet. The PENS project uses high altitude balloons and hands-on projects to introduce students to STEM fields. The Senior Physics class at Pella Christian High School has been working on three different experiments since November. The PENS-8 project at Pella Middle School is expected to launch sometime next week.