FARMINGTON — Sarah Cummings led the countdown Wednesday among fellow students to let go of the high-elevation balloon and attached payloads and sensors at the University of Maine at Farmington’s Prescott Field.

They expected it to rise 30,000 meters. It didn’t take long until it rose so high it was no longer visible.

Cummings was one of several Mt. Blue High School sophomores in teacher Doug Hodum’s classes that participated in the NASA-sponsored astrobiology-scientific ballooning project.

Students from the University of Maine in Orono were setting up payloads for another launch as Mt. Blue’s balloon filled with helium. Winthrop and Westbrook high school students were expected to launch their balloons in the same manner later in the day.

Fourth- and fifth-graders from Academy Hill School in Wilton watched on the sidelines as Mt. Blue students prepared the balloon to launch.

Jake Daly-O’Donnell, a computer engineering student at the University of Maine and Harley High, a Mt. Blue sophomore, manned the three helium tanks in the back of a vehicle. A hose attached to the tanks was used to fill the balloon with helium.

The balloon grew to about 8 feet in diameter, and it was ready.

While in the air the balloon would swell to more than double its size and burst, student Jacob Rutberg of Mt. Blue said.

The payloads attached to Mt. Blue’s balloon contained bacteria, seeds and sensors. The sensors were expected to collect ultraviolet data and temperature changes, among other information.

They sent up bacteria to see if any changes would develop when it returned to Earth, said Vic Serio of the Duboise Virology Research laboratory at the University of Southern Maine.

He worked on the project with students in Hodum’s class.

Some students were testing seeds to see if they would germinate after being exposed to such a high elevation, he said.

“Our program is one of 50 across the country,” said Terry Shehata, executive director of the Maine Space Grants Consortium. The program’s goal is to support undergraduates and inspire students in kindergarten through grade 12 to continue interest in engineering, science, physics and math, he said.

He said he hopes the program will expand in the state.

Jayden Kahn, an Academy Hill fifth-grader who attended the launch last year, said she expected it to go quicker this time.

“It will probably go up faster because they had more time to work on it,” she said, referring to the pilot program that is now in its second year.

She was right.

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