Month: March 2016

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 hooking the entire system up from top to bottom, verified the balloon and science instrument systems are compatible and operating as designed.

The test involved technicians on site in Wanaka and back at CSBF’s operational control center in Palestine, Texas, which verified the ability to receive and send data from the payload to the satellites and back to the control center.

“The hang test is our most critical milestone from a mission assurance perspective,” said Dwayne Orr, CSBF program manager. “This successful test moves us one step closer toward officially declaring our balloon flight ready for launch.”

NASA’s balloon team in Wanaka will conduct a flight readiness review Friday, April 1, which is the final step to declaring the balloon ready for launch operations.

Current weather predictions show winds and precipitation exceeding launch criteria at least through Saturday, April 2. NASA will assess weather conditions for a possible launch attempt Sunday, April 3, and announce status via media and social media no later than 2 p.m. Saturday, April 2.

NASA’s Balloon Program Team runs through a few fun facts about its super pressure balloon, scheduled to launch from Wanaka, New Zealand, in the following video:

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 designed to verify the balloon and science instrument systems are compatible and operating as designed.

As of press time, the test was still ongoing. In the meantime, current weather predictions show winds and precipitation exceeding launch criteria at least through Saturday, April 2. NASA will assess weather conditions for a possible launch attempt Sunday, April 3, and announce status via media and social media no later than 2 p.m. Saturday, April 2.

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 decision no later than 2 p.m. Thursday, March 31, (New Zealand time) whether or not to make a launch attempt.

In the meantime, the team is preparing for a balloon gondola hang test Wednesday, March 30, to ensure the science team’s instruments and the balloon system’s instruments are compatible and operating as designed.

One issue identified in preparation for tomorrow’s test was the presence of a French CASA CN-235 medium-range twin turboprop aircraft parked in the hang test operational area. The aircraft, which flew during the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow, was awaiting maintenance parts. Well-versed in moving aircraft from the previous day’s activities, the Columbia Scientific Balloon Team used its forklift to tow the aircraft to another location to enable Wednesday’s hang test. At this time, the test is scheduled to kick-off at 8 a.m.

Other preparation activities included reviewing nominal or normal launch procedures during a meeting Monday, March 28, and then conducting a thorough tabletop exercise reviewing off-nominal or abnormal launch scenarios Tuesday, March 29.

A number of “what if” scenarios were posed to the CSBF team, scenarios ranging from errant pressure gauges, electrical glitches, to inflation issues. The team tries to prepare for all potential situations with a focus on safety and mission success. Officials from Wanaka Airport and Queenstown Airport Corporation participated in the tabletop exercise event along with personnel from NASA, CSBF, the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) science team, and Raven Aerostar, the company that built the super pressure balloon.

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, but airport operations had to pause while officials devised a means to safely clear the Harvard from the runway. Looking for a lift, the airport team turned to NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) team and the knuckleboom crane it has on site.

Technicians Randall Henderson, Jacob Richard, Curtis Frazier, Corey Weber, and Alec Beange assisted airport emergency operations staff who worked to secure straps about the aircraft to ensure a safe lift with the knuckleboom.

With the straps in place, the CSBF team maneuvered the knuckleboom into position, hooked the straps, and slowly lifted the plane off the ground. Once lifting the plane about two feet (.66 meters) off the runway, emergency crews slid a helicopter dolly underneath the plane. The CSBF crew slowly placed the aircraft on the dolly, and from there, crews were easily able to move the aircraft from the runway and resume flight operations.

“All in day’s work,” said Dwayne Orr, CSBF program manager, speaking on the team’s ability to rapidly shift gears from balloon operations to airport emergency response. “We feel a close bond with the airport community here, and we’re proud to have been of assistance in the response. We’re all thankful no one was hurt in the incident.”

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 latitude. Wanaka Airport, at 44 degrees 43 minutes south latitude, is a near perfect location for these missions. In addition, the galactic center of the Milky Way, which is the focus for many science investigations, is only visible in the southern hemisphere’s mid-latitudes.

Attitude
The support from the local community and the airport staff make Wanaka an excellent place to launch. In addition, requirements for a launch location include access to a launch area such as a runway as well as access to heavy equipment, housing for staff, restaurants, support services, and more. While parts of New Zealand are remote, the easy access to all of these areas makes Wanaka an ideal place to launch.

Solitude
From a flight safety perspective, it is much more desirable to fly over unpopulated areas. By launching into the southern hemisphere’s mid-latitudes from Wanaka, much of the balloon’s flight path is over water and the few potential land crossings are largely over sparsely populated areas.

Duration
The key to flying long duration is to launch into the southern hemisphere’s stratospheric winter cyclone, a weather phenomenon that develops in the fall characterized by easterly winds that produce a clockwise stratospheric airflow about Antarctica on up to mid-latitudes. Wanaka’s location enables launches into the stratospheric cyclone during this time of year.

Weather
Wanaka offers excellent weather conditions for NASA’s scientific balloon launches. Mornings are often characterized by light winds with a steady, uniform direction during this time of year allowing for more potential launch opportunities.

Night
NASA’s other long-duration balloon flight launch locations, Antarctica and Sweden, are conducive for operations in constant daylight. However, some science missions require nighttime observations, often for extended periods of time. The predictable diurnal cycles (day/night cycles) make Wanaka ideal for instruments that need nighttime for observations.

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 evolutions of mankind’s first flying machines: balloons.

NASA’s scientific balloon program exhibited during the three-day event highlighting the balloons NASA flies in worldwide locations, and more specifically, the super pressure balloon set to fly from Wanaka.

The team begins flight preparations in earnest Monday with the goal of declaring flight readiness by the end of the week. The team could launch as early as April 1, depending on weather conditions on the ground and in the stratosphere.

New and vintage planes zoomed over the skies in Wanaka, New Zealand, during the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow, a biennial homage to aviation history as well as an aerobatics spectacle.

With history a focal point of the event, NASA’s Balloon Program proved a perfect fit alongside the warbirds, serving as a gentle reminder that before the first plane took to the skies, more than a hundred years earlier, there were balloons.

Of course, much has changed since the early balloon flights. Instead of smoke-filled paper balloons that defined ballooning’s first steps, today NASA flies enormous, helium-filled balloons, some up to 40 million cubic feet in volume (1.13 million cubic meters). Scientific balloons can carry up to 8,000 pounds (3,630 kg) up to 130,000 feet (39.63 km) in altitude. At that height, the balloons are flying in the near space environment, above 99.5 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Scientists have seen the benefit of balloon platforms for many years, often testing out new sensors and instruments before eventually integrating onto satellites for launch into space. In addition, the development of long-duration ballooning is opening the envelope for conducting certain types of scientific investigations that otherwise would need to fly into space.

Back to the airshow, which is expected to see some 50,000 through the Easter weekend, NASA set up an exhibit at the Wanaka Airport showcasing the two different types of balloons the agency flies: a zero pressure balloon and a super pressure balloon. On Thursday, March 24, the exhibit was open for local residents to peruse in advance of the airshow.

While the airshow officially kicks off Saturday, March 26, Friday served as a full dress rehearsal for the airshow performers, providing an additional opportunity to showcase NASA’s balloon program. Visitors slowly cycled into the hangar containing the balloon exhibit, and as the sun came up and the day got warmer, the crowds steadily increased.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center conducted its semiannual Robert H. Goddard Honor Awards ceremony at the center’s Greenbelt campus on Tuesday, March 22. Among those honored was the Mid-Latitude Southern Hemisphere Long-Duration Balloon (LDB) Team for their work in establishing Wanaka, New Zealand, as a site for NASA’s Scientific Balloon missions in 2015. Representatives from NASA’s Balloon Program Office and Orbital ATK were on hand to receive the award.

A few more honorees were unable to attend the ceremony, and for good reason: they were on the other side of the globe in Wanaka, New Zealand. Applying a little bit of creativity and innovation, NASA’s Balloon Team conducted an impromptu Goddard Awards Ceremony to recognize the Kiwi members of the LDB team during a reception hosted by the Wanaka Airport staff.

Those in New Zealand receiving honors were:

• Ralph Fegan, Wanaka Airport Manager
• Michele Poole, Queenstown Lakes District Council
• Jen Andrews, Queenstown Airport Corporation
• Chris Johnson, Queenstown Airport Corporation
• Bill Wrigley, Queenstown Airport Corporation
• Chris Read, Queenstown Airport Corporation
• Mike Clay, Queenstown Airport Corporation
• Terry Dower, Queenstown Airport Corporation
• Doug McKay, Queenstown Airport Corporation
• Dave Park, Astral Aviation Consultants
• Andy Boyd, Airways New Zealand
• Scott Scrimgeour, Airways New Zealand
• Jonathan Wallis, The Alpine Group Ltd

“Our program is worldwide, and as such, it takes a worldwide effort to be successful,” said Debbie Fairbrother, NASA’s Balloon Program Office chief. “The Wanaka Community has provided tremendous support to the balloon program, and it’s only fitting that they share in our success as well.”

Continuing on a theme of community, over the next several days the Balloon Program Office will support the biennial Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow with an exhibit and guest speaker presentations throughout the event.

NASA’s scientific balloon technicians marked another flight checklist item complete today after joining the base fitting of the Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) to the payload parachute. After making the connection, technicians worked to verify power and signal cables were aligned and properly connected. The team continues to work toward an April 1 launch date from Wanaka, New Zealand.

The work today highlights a particularly beneficial aspect of NASA’s balloon flights: the ability to recover the payload after flight objectives have been met. Once mission objectives have been met, but while the balloon is still at float, operators work with NASA safety officials to assess a safe area to terminate the balloon flight. As part of the assessment, officials factor in the real-time position of the balloon, forecast wind speed and direction, and whether or not the balloon is near a population center. After determining the balloon is in a position where public safety will be protected, operators send flight termination commands to bring the payload back to Earth via parachute.

Once on the ground, a recover team will go to the landing site to recover both the payload and the balloon.

The work completed today in joining the balloon to the parachute and verifying all supporting systems are operating normally is a vital step toward ensuring the ability to recover the balloon payload.

(Note: In the video, the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) payload and gondola is seen on the far left. COSI is flying as a mission of opportunity on this year’s SPB test flight. For more information on COSI, please see: http://cosi.ssl.berkeley.edu.)