Month: May 2023

NASA Successfully Completes Globetrotting SuperBIT Balloon Flight

NASA successfully completed a flight test of its super pressure balloon carrying the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) science mission at 9:27 a.m. EDT, Thursday, May 25, after some 39 days and 14 hours of flight.

The mission began at 11:42 a.m., Sunday, April 16 (7:42 p.m. April 15 in U.S. Eastern Time) launching from Wānaka Airport, New Zealand, which is NASA’s long-duration balloon program launch site.

Large, translucent-white science balloon dominating a mountainous landscape
A super pressure balloon partially inflated as it’s being prepared to launch from Wānaka, New Zealand, April 16, with the SuperBIT payload.
Credits: NASA/Bill Rodman

“This flight was, bar none, our best to date with the balloon flying nominally in the stratosphere and maintaining a stable float altitude,” said Debbie Fairbrother, NASA’s Balloon Program Office chief at the Agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. “Achieving long-duration balloon flight through day and night conditions is an important goal for our program and the science community, and this flight has moved the needle significantly in validating and qualifying the balloon technology.”

Having identified a safe landing area over southern Argentina, balloon operators from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, sent flight termination commands at 8:37 a.m. EDT, May 25. The 18.8-million-cubic-foot (532,000-cubic-meter) balloon then separated from the payload rapidly deflating, and the payload floated safely to the ground on a parachute touching down in an unpopulated area 66 nautical miles (122 kilometers) northeast of Gobernador Gregores, Argentina. NASA coordinated with Argentine officials prior to ending the balloon mission; recovery of the payload and balloon is in progress.

illustrated flight path of SuperBIT balloon, showing red criss-crossings over Argentina and Chile

During its nearly 40-day journey, the balloon completed a record five full circuits about the Southern Hemisphere’s mid-latitudes, maintaining a float altitude around 108,000 feet. In the coming days, the predicted flight path would have taken the balloon more southerly with little exposure to sunlight, creating some risk in maintaining power to the balloon’s systems, which are charged via solar panels. The land-crossing created an opportunity to safely conclude the flight and recover the balloon and payload.

“I could not be prouder of the team for conducting a safe and successful flight, and the science returns from SuperBIT have been nothing short of amazing,” said Fairbrother.

map of SuperBIT balloon flight path, showing green circlings around Antarctica

Next up for NASA’s Balloon Program is a science mission launching from the Agency’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in July.

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Peraton, which operates NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) in Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for NASA’s scientific balloon program. The CSBF team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations. NASA’s balloons are fabricated by Aerostar. The NASA Scientific Balloon Program is funded by the Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

For more information on NASA’s Balloon Program, visit: www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons.

NASA Super Pressure Balloon Mission Terminated Due to Anomaly

A NASA super pressure balloon is inflated appearing as a large upside down white tear drop against a mountainous horizon with a clear sky.
The EUSO-2 mission being prepared for launch on a super pressure balloon from New Zealand.
Credits: NASA/Bill Rodman

After a successful launch and more than a day in flight, our second super pressure balloon (SPB) carrying EUSO-2 developed a leak, and flight controllers safely terminated the flight over the Pacific Ocean.

The scientific balloon launched from Wānaka Airport, New Zealand, May 13, 12:02 p.m. NZST (May 12, 8:02 p.m EDT).  The balloon was in flight for 1 day, 12 hours, and 53 minutes before termination over the Pacific Ocean May 14 at 12:54 UTC (8:54 a.m. EDT). The launch was the second and final for NASA’s 2023 New Zealand balloon launch campaign.

During flight, the SPB began experiencing a leak and teams attempted to troubleshot by dropping ballast to maintain the balloon’s altitude. The determination was made to safely terminate over the Pacific Ocean. NASA will investigate the cause of the anomaly.

“This is an unfortunate end to the mission and we will investigate the cause to help us continue to improve the super pressure balloon technology,” said Debbie Fairbrother, NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program chief.

NASA conducted a thorough environmental analysis of an open-ocean landing before beginning its mid-latitude flight program in 2015. The open-ocean flight termination procedure makes use of the two-ton flight payload as an anchor to pull the entire balloon flight train to the bottom of the ocean as quickly as possible. In this way, the balloon does not remain in the primary water column zone where most marine species are known to live, minimizing environmental impacts.
The first super pressure balloon carrying SuperBIT continues to perform nominally on its fourth revolution of the Southern Hemisphere. That mission launched at 11:42 a.m. NZST, Sunday, April 16 (7:42 p.m. April 15 in U.S. Eastern Time).

Third Launch Attempt Scheduled for NASA Super Pressure Balloon

The EUSO-2 payload hangs from a yellow crane vehicle. The payload main body is mostly enclosed silver plastic wrapped wraps with multiple bars across the top with various instrumentation.
Technicians perform pre-launch testing on the Extreme Universe Space Observatory 2 (EUSO-2) payload ahead of planned launch attempts. Credit: NASA/Bill Rodman

Wānaka, New Zealand—NASA is targeting Saturday, May 13 (Friday, May 12 in U.S. EDT) to conduct a second super pressure balloon (SPB) test flight launching from Wānaka Airport to further test and qualify the technology, which can offer cost savings compared to space missions.

The first super pressure balloon launch carrying the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) continues to perform brilliantly and has been at float for more than 25 days. SuperBIT is currently on its fourth circumnavigation of the southern hemisphere.

This second scheduled flight will carry the Extreme Universe Space Observatory 2 (EUSO-2) science mission. EUSO-2, from the University of Chicago, aims to build on data collected during a 2017 mission. The mission will detect ultra-high energy cosmic-ray particles from beyond our galaxy as they penetrate Earth’s atmosphere. The origins of these particles are not well known, so the data collected from EUSO-2 will help solve this science mystery.

NASA will begin flight preparations in the early morning hours Saturday in New Zealand and continue to evaluate weather conditions in real-time throughout the morning. If weather is conducive for launch, lift-off is scheduled between 8 and 11:30 a.m. locally (between 4 and 7:30 p.m. U.S. EDT Friday, May 12).

For subsequent launch attempts, if needed, NASA will announce by 2 p.m. NZST (10 p.m. EDT) if the next day’s forecast weather will support a launch attempt.

For those in the local area, the public won’t be allowed at or to park alongside Wānaka Airport on the morning of the launch for flight safety reasons. However, immediately after lift-off, the balloon will be visible for miles around – the best viewing points will be on the hill on the Hawea side of the Red Bridge by Kane Road or on the Hawea Flat side of the Clutha River.

The launch can be tracked in the following ways:
• A live feed of the launch is available here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-csbf-downrange-operations
• Track the progress of the flight at the following link, which includes a map showing the balloon’s real-time location, at: https://www.csbf.nasa.gov/map/balloon8/flight729NT.htm.

Ongoing mission updates are also available on NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon blog.

NASA conducts SPB launches from New Zealand in collaboration with the Queenstown Airport Corporation, Queenstown Lake District Council, New Zealand Space Agency, and Airways New Zealand.

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Peraton, which operates NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) in Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for NASA’s scientific balloon program. The CSBF team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations. NASA’s balloons are fabricated by Aerostar. The NASA Balloon Program is funded by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division.

For more information on NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons

NASA’s Scientific Super Pressure Balloon Strong After Round 2

A map with Antarctica at the center. A green line that transitions into a red line forms a circle around the continent showing the flight track of NASA's super pressure balloon. The red line represents the first circumnavigation around the southern hemisphere, and the green represents the current, second circumnavigation.
NASA’s super pressure balloon completed its second mid-latitude circumnavigation after just 18 days of flight.

NASA’s scientific super pressure balloon (SPB) that launched from Wānaka, New Zealand, April 16 (April 15 in U.S. EDT), has completed two revolutions about the Earth’s Southern Hemisphere in just 18 days.

This mission, carrying the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) science mission, is the first NASA SPB to complete two full revolutions about the southern hemisphere floating in the stratosphere at mid-latitudes. The balloon is healthy and continues to perform nominally while NASA continues its mission to validate and qualify the balloon technology for additional science flights.

“We’re just a couple weeks in, but so far, the balloon is on track and performing as designed and expected,” said Debbie Fairbrother, NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program Office chief. “Past flights have helped us refine the engineering on this balloon, and from what we’re seeing, all that work is paying off nicely. We’re hopeful we’ll complete many more revolutions about the hemisphere over the next several weeks with the SuperBIT team continuing to produce brilliant science.”

For more information about the SuperBIT mission, see their latest images here. The ongoing science balloon flight is monitored real-time from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and anyone can track the position of the balloon here.

NASA predicts the balloon will complete a circumnavigation once every week to three weeks.

Next up for NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program is another planned super pressure balloon launch from Wānaka to further test the technology while also flying the Extreme Universe Space Observatory 2 (EUSO-2) science mission. EUSO-2, from the University of Chicago, aims to build on data collected during a 2017 mission. EUSO-2 will detect ultra-high energy cosmic-ray particles from beyond our galaxy as they penetrate Earth’s atmosphere. The origins of these particles are not well known, so the data collected from EUSO-2 will help solve this science mystery. Planned launch attempts will be announced on this blog.

For more information on NASA’s Balloon Program, visit: www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons.

NASA Schedules Super Pressure Balloon Launch Attempt

Wānaka, New Zealand—NASA is targeting Friday, May 5 (Thursday, May 4 in U.S. EDT) to conduct a second super pressure balloon (SPB) test flight launching from Wānaka Airport to further test and qualify the technology, which can offer cost savings compared to space missions.

The first super pressure balloon launch carrying the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) continues to perform brilliantly and has been at float for more than 18 days.

This second scheduled flight will carry the Extreme Universe Space Observatory 2 (EUSO-2) science mission. EUSO-2, from the University of Chicago, aims to build on data collected during a 2017 mission. The mission will detect ultra-high energy cosmic-ray particles from beyond our galaxy as they penetrate Earth’s atmosphere. The origins of these particles are not well known, so the data collected from EUSO-2 will help solve this science mystery.

NASA will begin flight preparations in the early morning hours Friday in New Zealand and continue to evaluate weather conditions throughout the morning. If weather is conducive for launch, lift-off is scheduled between 8 and 11:30 a.m. locally (between 4 and 7:30 p.m. U.S. EDT Thursday, May 4).

At this time, forecast weather conditions and the predicted launch flight trajectory are both considered marginal.

For subsequent launch attempts, if needed, NASA will announce by 2 p.m. NZST (10 p.m. EDT) if the next day’s forecast weather will support a launch attempt.

For those in the local area, the public won’t be allowed at or to park alongside Wānaka Airport on the morning of the launch for flight safety reasons. However, immediately after lift-off, the balloon will be visible for miles around – the best viewing points will be on the hill on the Hawea side of the Red Bridge by Kane Road or on the Hawea Flat side of the Clutha River.

The launch can be tracked in the following ways:
• A live feed of the launch is available here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-csbf-downrange-operations
• Track the progress of the flight at the following link, which includes a map showing the balloon’s real-time location, at: https://www.csbf.nasa.gov/map/balloon8/flight729NT.htm.

Ongoing mission updates are also available on NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon blog.

NASA conducts SPB launches from New Zealand in collaboration with the Queenstown Airport Corporation, Queenstown Lake District Council, New Zealand Space Agency, and Airways New Zealand.

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Peraton, which operates NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) in Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for NASA’s scientific balloon program. The CSBF team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations. NASA’s balloons are fabricated by Aerostar. The NASA Balloon Program is funded by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division.

For more information on NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons

More Science Imagery from SuperBIT

Check out more science imagery from the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) that launched on a scientific super pressure balloon April 16, 2023, Eastern time from Wānaka, New Zealand.

The two preliminary research images below are secondary science goals for the SuperBIT mission, which is to characterize the types of stars in other galaxies that are similar to ones in our own Milky Way Galaxy. The team uses color to determine the age and size of a star. Many small stars together tend to age slowly, appearing red in imagery. Larger stars burn faster and die quicker and will appear white or ultraviolet in the time they can be observed.

The ongoing science balloon flight is monitored real-time from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and anyone can track the position of the balloon here.

The Southern Pinwheel galaxy

The Pinwheel galaxy is a spiral galaxy. It is purple with a bright center set against a black background with various white spots thorughout.
A preliminary image of the Messier 83, also know as the The Southern Pinwheel spiral galaxy, taken by the SuperBIT telescope flying on a super pressure balloon. Credit: NASA/SuperBIT

The sombrero galaxy

The Sombrero Galaxy looks like a diagonal, with a bright spot in the center with a hard line in front of it set against a black background with small and pinpoint white spots.
A preliminary image of the Messier 104, also known as The Sombrero Galaxy, taken by the SuperBIT telescope flying on a super pressure balloon. Credit: NASA/SuperBIT