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Super Pressure Balloon

    Piggyback Payloads Flying on NASA’s Super Balloon

    The Carolina Infrasound instrument

    Weather update: No super pressure balloon launch attempt for Friday, April 8, due to poor weather; officials will meet Friday afternoon to determine if Saturday's weather will support a launch attempt from Wanaka, New Zealand. (All dates are New Zealand). The primary mission of NASA's super pressure balloon (SPB) flight from Wanaka, New Zealand, is …

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    NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon by the Numbers

    View looking up at a super pressure balloon

    NASA's super pressure balloon team in Wanaka, New Zealand, continues to evaluate weather daily for conditions that could support a launch attempt of the pumpkin-shaped, football-stadium-sized balloon. At this time, the weather running through Thursday, April 7, will not support a launch attempt. Weekend weather is showing some potential, but the final call for any …

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    Forecasting from the Ground up to the Edge of Space

    Daily weather briefing

    Weather. Most of us are content with tuning into the news, picking up a newspaper, opening up a smartphone app, or perhaps even relying on a trick knee to get a general sense of the day's weather outlook. Cloudy, sunny, rainy, windy, snowy. Pleasant, frigid, heat wave, cold snap. With the daily forecast in hand, …

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    The Compton Spectrometer and Imager explained

    Photo of a scientific balloon inflating at  Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, on Tuesday, May 17

    Dr. Steven Boggs, professor and head of the Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, describes the objectives of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI), a gamma-ray telescope set for liftoff to the near space environment via a NASA super pressure balloon. The balloon launch is scheduled for no earlier than Monday, April 4, from Wanaka, …

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    Successful Compatibility Test Paves Way for Wanaka Balloon Launch

    A scientific balloon fully inflated floating in the sky. It appears plastic and clear against a clear blue sky.

    Technicians with NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) reached a major milestone Wednesday, March 30, after successfully completing an instrument compatibility test in preparation for launching a super pressure balloon from Wanaka, New Zealand. The daylong test, also referred to as a hang test because it involves suspending the payload from the launch crane and …

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    Compatibility Testing Begins for Super Balloon

    NASA conducts compatibility test for balloon launch

    In preparation for its upcoming super pressure balloon launch, NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility kicked off a compatibility test Wednesday, March 30, at Wanaka Airport. The test, also referred to as a hang test because it involves suspending the payload from the launch crane and hooking the entire system up from top to bottom, is …

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    Balloon Team Prepares for Good Day, Stands Ready for Anything

    Tabletop exercise

    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 …

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    Belly-landed Aircraft Gets a Lift from NASA’s Balloon Team

    NASA balloon program helps airport emergency response

    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, …

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