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A super pressure balloon with Euse-2 payload is prepared for Wānaka’s launch during NASA’s 2023 campaign.
Photo: Supplied / NASA / Bill Rodman
Two super pressure balloons, each the size of a rugby stadium, will test NASA technology on Wednesday.
The elevation was scheduled, traveling time, for some time between 9am and 1pm of Wānaka airport.
The flights of the two balloons, which were about the size of Dunedin’s Forsyth-Barr Stadium, were part of NASA’s scientific scientific program.
The heavy lifting balloons would travel the average latitudes of the southern hemisphere for 100 days or more.
The first would bring instruments to make measurements more than 100 kilometers above the earth’s surface.
It would help scientists to predict changes in ionosphere, which affected communication and navigation systems, NASA told.
The second flight would support several scientific missions, including measuring light and sound waves in the earth atmosphere.
The balloons, with a volume of 532,000 cubic meters, floated to an altitude of about 33 km, well above the altitude of a commercial plane.
He has marked the sixth campaign in New Zealand since 2015, with the latest being two successful releases in 2023.
Wānaka Airport Service Manager Rushlee Smith said NASA approached the airport for many years and the airport provided the agency a good place to test its technology in the southern regions of the world.
Much research has entered a successful release, she said.
“NASA will go to the block around two or three o’clock in the morning, it’s looking for a release time of about nine o’clock, but it can be anywhere between 7:30 am and 12:30 pm,” Smith said.
“They have a very substantial deadline and are quite fluid so they can finish what they need and, of course, start inflate this balloon.”
It was very exciting for the residents of Wānaka, she said.
NASA’s Balloon Balloon Program head office, Gabriel Garde, said the agency was also very excited to return to this campaign.
“Our dedicated team, both in the countryside and at home, spent years in preparation for this opportunity, and it was through his hard work, fortress and passion that we are back and totally ready for the next campaign.”
Parts of the State Highway 6 and Highway 8a state would be closed for launch and access to airport and parking on the airport road would not be allowed.
The balloons would be visible to kilometers around, and the best viewing points would be in the hill next to Hāwea from the red bridge by the Kane Road or on the flat side of the Clutha River.
A live feed would also be available.
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