NASA Balloon Program Supports Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow
Magdi Said, NASA’s Balloon Program Office, demonstrates the durability of balloon film while exhibiting during the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow March 25-27 in New Zealand. (NASA/Dave Helfrich)
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.
Visitors to the Wanaka Airshow visit NASA’s Balloon Program exhibit. (NASA/Bill Rodman)Cheng-Liu (Alan) Chiu, member of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager team, talks to visitors about the COSI gamma ray telescope while exhibiting during the Wanaka Airshow. COSI is set to launch on NASA’s super pressure balloon April 1, weather dependent. (NASA/Bill Rodman)Visitors to NASA’s Balloon Program exhibit at the Wanaka Airshow learn about NASA’s super pressure balloon, set to launch from Wanaka April 1. (NASA/Bill Rodman)Helicopters take to the sky during the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow, which ran March 25-27. (NASA/Bill Rodman)A formation of nine planes performs a loop during the Wanaka Airshow. (NASA/Bill Rodman)A C-130 takes to the skies during the Wanaka Airshow. (NASA/Bill Rodman)Officials estimated that more than 50,000 visitors attended the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow March 25-27. (NASA/Bill Rodman)
