NASA's next super pressure balloon (SPB) mission out of Wanaka, New Zealand, is enabling a pioneering method for studying high-energy cosmic rays from space using a detector looking down on the Earth's atmosphere. The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon (EUSO-SPB) is a mission of opportunity flying on the 2017 SPB test …
The acting U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, Chargé d'Affaires Candy Green, paid a visit to Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, March 23 to see first-hand NASA's super pressure balloon operations, the science it supports, and the combined U.S.-Kiwi team behind it all. While on site, Green observed the final flight readiness test of the University of …
NASA's Scientific Balloon Team kicked off a day-long hang test of the Extreme Universe Space Observatory-Super Pressure Balloon (EUSO-SPB) payload March 23, a key step to certifying the flight readiness of this year's super pressure balloon mission lifting off from Wanaka, New Zealand. The hang test is a complete test of all primary balloon systems—tracking, …
While the launch window for NASA's next Super Pressure Balloon launch from Wanaka, New Zealand, opens March 25, there are a number of factors that need to align prior to making an actual launch attempt. Operationally, all the balloon systems—power, communications, telemetry, etc.—need to be checked out and tested. Today, as seen in the accompanying …
Aviators, skydivers and other altitude-seeking enthusiasts flying out of Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, are double taking at a new topographical feature reminiscent of an alien crop circle. Rest assured, the nearly 2,000-foot (600-meter) diameter circle with a pie-shaped wedge on one side and spokes on the other is no extraterrestrial footprint and it's definitely no …
In preparation for NASA's next Super Pressure Balloon flight from Wanaka, New Zealand, NASA's balloon team unpacked the top and bottom fittings of the balloon March 17 to perform test and integration work prior to launch. The 18.8-million-cubic-foot (532,000-cubic-meter) balloon is enormous – about the size of a football stadium – when fully inflated. The …
After a globetrotting journey that started in Texas and included stops in Belgium and Singapore, an 18.8 million-cubic-foot (532,000 cubic-meter) super pressure balloon (SPB) arrived in Wanaka, New Zealand, March 9, in preparation for another journey—one that should take it around the world multiple times. This is the third consecutive year NASA has flown the …
NASA's Balloon Program Office successfully completed the second test flight of its Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) at 3:54 p.m. EDT, Saturday, July 2, setting a new flight duration record for a mid-latitude flight of a large scientific research balloon. The mission, which began at 7:35 p.m. EDT, May 16 (11:35 a.m., May 17, in New …
Forty days at float as of Saturday, June 25, and NASA's super pressure balloon (SPB) is presently flying above the south Pacific as it continues on its long-duration technology test and science flight. For the past two weeks, the balloon has etched out a whimsical groundtrack over the Pacific, slipping out of the more southerly …
While the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) gazes into space, another experiment is listening for whispers from the Earth itself. Housed in two humble white boxes tucked behind COSI's solar panel, a triad of microphones are recording infrasound – sound too deep for humans to hear. Infrasound sources include volcanoes, earthquakes, ocean waves, the aurora, …
