Balloon launched in NZ lands safely
THE first of Nasa’s super pressure balloons to launch from Wa¯naka airport this year landed safely in Argentina yesterday morning, marking the end of the agency’s New Zealand mission for 2023.
In a blog post on its website, Nasa confirmed the balloon carrying the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) landed at 1.27am New Zealand time yesterday, after 39 days and 14 hours in the air.
Nasa balloon programme office chief Debbie Fairbrother said the flight had been Nasa’s ‘‘best to date’’.
‘‘Achieving longduration balloon flight through day and night conditions is an important goal for our programme and the science community and this flight has moved the needle significantly in validating and qualifying the balloon technology.’’
As its payload captured images of galaxies for a team at Princeton University, the balloon completed five full rotations of the southern hemisphere, the highest number achieved by any mission to date.
Unlike the second balloon, which crashed into the Pacific Ocean earlier this month after developing a leak, this balloon was sent ‘‘termination codes’’ by Nasa’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas.
Nasa made the decision to end the mission after it determined the balloon’s predicted flight path would reduce its exposure to sunlight, creating an operating risk for its solarpowered machinery.
‘‘The landcrossing created an opportunity to safely conclude the flight and recover the balloon and payload,’’ the agency said.
Nasa’s balloon programme will now shift its focus to a launch from its Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in July, before moving to Sweden in 2024, another one of their launch locations.
The programme aims to return to Wa¯naka in early 2025.
Nasa’s super pressure balloon at its successful launch from Wa¯naka in April.