Tuesday's preparations for the upcoming super pressure balloon launch from Wanaka, New Zealand, kicked off with a weather forecast for Friday, April 1, the first potential launch opportunity for the team. At this time, the weather for Friday is less than ideal for launch, but the team continues to monitor conditions and will make a …
A little post-airshow excitement occurred at Wanaka Airport March 28 when a World War II era Harvard aircraft safely belly landed on the airport's runway around 9:30 a.m. March 28. After touching down, the aircraft's landing gear apparently collapsed, bringing the aircraft's belly down to the runway surface. No injuries were reported in the incident, …
Crew Off Duty: Today was a full off duty day for the USOS crew. This is to pay the crew back for performing Cygnus operations over the weekend. Orbital 6 (OA-6) Capture and Berthing: Cygnus was successfully captured and berthed to the ISS on Saturday. The crew ingressed the vehicle on Sunday, spent 12.5 hours …
by Patrick Lynch / KEFLAVIK, ICELAND / On Monday morning, the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) team left the chill of Keflavik (32 degrees Fahrenheit but with a relentless, stinging wind) for the more ruthless cold of -8 degrees Fahrenheit in Thule, Greenland. Before landing, the seven-person team will fly over coastline near Thule today to …
by Patrick Lynch / KEFLAVIK, ICELAND / Here's the second part of our Q&A with Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) principal investigator Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, specializing in sea level rise. Josh is also a graduate of the improv program at Second City Hollywood Conservatory in Los Angeles. …
As the location for NASA's long-duration, mid-latitude super pressure balloon missions, one might ask: Why Wanaka, New Zealand? Six reasons come to mind: latitude, attitude, solitude, duration, weather and night. Latitude Some science experiments need to observe phenomena in the sky at locations only accessible by launching mid-latitude balloon flights centered around 45 degrees south …
The first A in NASA was celebrated to the full in Wanaka, New Zealand, this Easter weekend with more than 50,000 turning out for the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow. The biennial homage to aeronautics past and present featured aircraft from World War II to the present, fixed wing and rotary aircraft, as well as modern …
by Patrick Lynch / KEFLAVIK, ICELAND / The Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) team is flying NASA's G-III at about 40,000 feet. On a clear day, this altitude also provides a stunning perspective of one of the world's two great ice sheets (the other is Antarctica). The flight Saturday, March 26, over the northeast coastline was …
The Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship was bolted into place on the International Space Station’s Earth-facing port of the Unity module at 10:52 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft’s arrival will support the crew members’ research off the Earth to benefit the Earth. The Cygnus is delivering more than 7,700 pounds of science and research, crew supplies …
