NASA Super Pressure Balloon Begins Globetrotting Journey
NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, on Tuesday, May 17, 2016.
The purpose of the flight was to test and validate the super pressure balloon technology with the goal of long-duration flight (100+ days) at mid-latitudes. In addition, the gondola was carrying the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) gamma-ray telescope as a mission of opportunity.
Two hours and 8 minutes after lift-off, the 532,000-cubic-meter (18.8-million-cubic-foot) balloon reached its operational float altitude of 33.5 kilometers (110,000 feet) flying a trajectory taking it initially westward through southern Australia before entering into the eastward flowing winter stratospheric cyclone. The balloon flew around the planet over the course of the next 46 days, when the balloon was finally brought back to Earth along the coast of Peru.
Credit: NASA/Bill Rodman
Image Number: GSFC-20171208_Archive_e000335
Date: May 17, 2016
NASA Super Pressure Balloon Begins Globetrotting Journey
NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, on Tuesday, May 17, 2016.
The purpose of the flight was to test and validate the super pressure balloon technology with the goal of long-duration flight (100+ days) at mid-latitudes. In addition, the gondola was carrying the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) gamma-ray telescope as a mission of opportunity.
Two hours and 8 minutes after lift-off, the 532,000-cubic-meter (18.8-million-cubic-foot) balloon reached its operational float altitude of 33.5 kilometers (110,000 feet) flying a trajectory taking it initially westward through southern Australia before entering into the eastward flowing winter stratospheric cyclone. The balloon flew around the planet over the course of the next 46 days, when the balloon was finally brought back to Earth along the coast of Peru.
Credit: NASA/Bill Rodman
Image Number: GSFC-20171208_Archive_e000335
Date: May 17, 2016