Latest Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility Stories
They nicknamed it the "Little Balloon That Could." Launched in December of 2010 from McMurdo Station in Antarctica, the research balloon was a test run and it bobbed lower every day like it had some kind of leak. But every day for five days it rose back up in the sky to some 112,000 feet in the air. Down on Earth, physicist Robyn Millan was cheering it on, hoping the test launch would bode well for the success of her grand idea: launches in 2013 and 2014 of 20 such balloons to float...
NASA and the National Science Foundation launched a scientific balloon on Monday, Dec. 20, to study the effects of cosmic rays on Earth. It was the first of five scientific balloons scheduled to launch from Antarctica in December.The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM VI) experiment was designed and built at the University of Maryland. CREAM VI is investigating high-energy cosmic-ray particles that originated from distant supernovae explosions in the Milky Way and reached Earth.Currently,...
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's scientific balloon program is resuming flights this month after an extensive evaluation of its safety processes following a mishap during an April launch attempt from Australia. NASA's high-altitude balloons fly instruments for scientific and technological investigations that contribute to our understanding of Earth, the solar system, and the universe.(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)In October, a NASA...
A NASA panel that investigated the unsuccessful April 28 launch of a scientific balloon from Alice Springs, Australia, has released its report.NASA was attempting to launch the balloon carrying a gamma-ray telescope belonging to the University of California at Berkeley. The Nuclear Compton Telescope, which was partially destroyed in the accident, was designed to look for distant galaxies from a vantage point high in Earth's upper atmosphere.The scientific payload inadvertently separated from...
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A NASA panel that investigated the unsuccessful April 28 launch of a scientific balloon from Alice Springs, Australia, has released its report. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) NASA was attempting to launch the balloon carrying a gamma-ray telescope belonging to the University of California at Berkeley. The Nuclear Compton Telescope, which was...
NASA Seeks Student Payloads for High-Flying Research BalloonNASA is accepting applications from students at U.S. colleges and universities who want to send their experiments to the edge of space on a high-flying scientific balloon.The annual NASA project provides near space access for 12 undergraduate and graduate student experiments to be carried by a NASA high-altitude research balloon. The flights typically last 15 to 20 hours and reach an altitude of 23 miles. Experiments may include...
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA is accepting applications from students at U.S. colleges and universities who want to send their experiments to the edge of space on a high-flying scientific balloon. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The annual NASA project provides near space access for 12 undergraduate and graduate student experiments to be carried by a NASA high-altitude research balloon. The flights typically last 15 to 20 hours and reach...
Experts said a UFO spotted over Arizona was a research balloon launched by the U.S. space agency to measure gamma ray emissions. Bill Stepp of the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, said the UFO reported Monday was a 4,000-pound balloon sent to measure the gamma ray emissions at high altitudes by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The Arizona Republic reported Tuesday. Stepp said the balloon was sent out at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday from Fort Sumter in New...
SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aerostar International, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raven Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: RAVN), announced today a seven million cubic foot prototype super-pressure balloon, built for NASA's Balloon Program, has surpassed two weeks of near constant altitude flight over the Antarctic continent. This flight marks the next milestone in NASA's plans to develop a vehicle to fly heavy scientific payloads at the edge of space for periods...
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA and the National Science Foundation have successfully launched and demonstrated a newly designed super pressure balloon prototype that may enable a new era of high-altitude scientific research. The super-pressure balloon ultimately will carry large scientific experiments to the brink of space for 100 days or more. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) This seven-million-cubic-foot super-pressure balloon is the...
