NASA’s Super-Pressure Balloon recently returned from a record-breaking flight around the Southern Hemisphere in a little more than 16 days. Our amazing high-altitude balloon launched from Wānaka, New Zealand, in mid-April. It soared to impressive heights and provided useful data to advance atmospheric research.
When inflated to its maximum size, the balloon is near the size of a football stadium. Just two hours after takeoff, the airplane reached an astounding altitude of nearly 21 miles (33 kilometers). To date, this milestone marks an extraordinary achievement in high-altitude flight. Once the mission balloon launched, it actually largely drifted over the ocean. Shortly after launch, it was even spotted from a nearby international airport.
The balloon held a two-ton payload, used as an anchor to keep the balloon stable. This design reduced environmental impact while maintaining the data collection process in its original form. On May 4th, the mission controllers had an easy run guiding the Super-Pressure Balloon into a preselected splash zone. This zone is located a few hundred miles east of New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean. That’s why the mission was cut short weeks earlier than anticipated due to a tiny leak. This leak affected the balloon’s altitude and caused an early ending.
NASA’s Super-Pressure Balloon flew continuous, level flights at record high altitudes, 24 hours a day. In the end, it turned out to be a workhorse platform for robust long-duration science missions. Despite ballooning around, the balloon was in control during the daytime. After sundown it occasionally dropped to around 11 miles (18 kilometers) over cooler areas and convective storm complexes.
On May 3, the balloon passed the 169.24 degrees east longitude line, demonstrating the tremendous distance, range, and reach of this extraordinary platform. Following this successful mission, NASA launched another scientific balloon on May 3, designed to stay aloft longer and further qualify the system for future research missions.
Gabriel Garde, chief of NASA’s Balloon Program Office at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, emphasized the importance of the data collected during this mission.
“While it would have been preferable to recover the hardware, we were able to ensure all our viable data both on the science and support sides were telemetered down.” – Gabriel Garde
