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Kyle Helson Finds EXCITE-ment in Exoplanet Exploration

September 10, 2024

Madison Olson

Almost a decade ago, then-grad student Kyle Helson contributed to early paperwork for NASA’s EXCITE mission. As a scientist at Goddard, Helson helped make this balloon-based telescope a reality: EXCITE launched successfully on Aug. 31. Name: Kyle HelsonTitle: Assistant Research ScientistOrganization: Observational Cosmology Lab (Code 665), via UMBC and the GESTAR II cooperative agreement with…
Read more: Kyle Helson Finds EXCITE-ment in Exoplanet Exploration
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NASA Scientific Balloon Takes Flight With Student-Built Payloads

September 6, 2024

Olivia F. Littleton

NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program’s fifth balloon mission of the 2024 fall campaign took flight Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, from the agency’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The HASP 1.0 (High-Altitude Student Platform) mission remained in flight over 11 hours before it safely touched down. Recovery is underway. HASP is a partnership…
Read more: NASA Scientific Balloon Takes Flight With Student-Built Payloads
astrophysics, exoplanets, goddard space flight center, Infrared Light, Scientific Balloons, Tech Industry, Tech News, The Universe, wallops flight facility

NASA’s EXCITE Mission Prepared for Scientific Balloon Flight

August 22, 2024

NASA

Scientists and engineers are ready to fly an infrared mission called EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) to the edge of space. EXCITE is designed to study atmospheres around exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, during circumpolar long-duration scientific balloon flights. But first, it must complete a test flight during NASA’s fall 2024 scientific ballooning campaign from Fort Sumner,…
Read more: NASA’s EXCITE Mission Prepared for Scientific Balloon Flight
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NASA to Launch 8 Scientific Balloons From New Mexico

August 9, 2024

Olivia F. Littleton

NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has kicked off its annual fall balloon campaign at the agency’s balloon launch facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Eight balloon flights carrying scientific experiments and technology demonstrations are scheduled to launch from mid-August through mid-October. The flights will support 16 missions, including investigations in the fields of astrophysics, heliophysics, and…
Read more: NASA to Launch 8 Scientific Balloons From New Mexico
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NASA Balloons Head North of Arctic Circle for Long-Duration Flights

April 30, 2024

Olivia F. Littleton

NASA is set to begin launch operations mid-May for the 2024 Sweden Long-Duration Scientific Balloon Campaign. Four stadium-sized, scientific balloons carrying science missions and technology demonstrations are scheduled to lift off from Swedish Space Corporation’s Esrange Space Center, situated north of the Arctic Circle near Kiruna, Sweden. The campaign will continue through early July. “NASA’s…
Read more: NASA Balloons Head North of Arctic Circle for Long-Duration Flights
Astrophysics Explorers Program, GUSTO (Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory), Scientific Balloons, Tech Industry, Tech News, wallops flight facility

GUSTO Breaks NASA Scientific Balloon Record for Days in Flight

February 26, 2024

Olivia F. Littleton

Fifty-five days, one hour, and 34 minutes was the NASA record to beat, and the GUSTO (Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory) scientific balloon mission did just that Saturday, Feb. 24, while flying high above the icy surface of Antarctica. GUSTO is now the new record-holder for longest flight of any NASA heavy-lift, long-duration scientific balloon…
Read more: GUSTO Breaks NASA Scientific Balloon Record for Days in Flight
Astrophysics Explorers Program, GUSTO (Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory), Scientific Balloons, Tech Industry, Tech News, wallops flight facility

GUSTO Balloon Mission Maintains Course Circling Antarctic Skies

January 17, 2024

Olivia F. Littleton

High above the icy landscape of Earth’s southernmost continent, the Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) scientific balloon mission has been afloat for more than 15 days since its launch from McMurdo, Antarctica, on Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. local time (Dec. 31, 1:30 a.m. EST). GUSTO is mapping a large portion of the Milky Way…
Read more: GUSTO Balloon Mission Maintains Course Circling Antarctic Skies
BARREL (Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses), Scientific Balloons, Tech Industry, Tech News

On Cupid! On, Donner and BARREL!

December 22, 2023

Monika Luabeya

In this image from Dec. 8, 2017, four reindeer walk past the Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses, or BARREL, payload on the launch pad at Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, Sweden. BARREL primarily measured X-rays in Earth’s atmosphere near the North and South Poles. These X-rays are caused by electrons that rain down,…
Read more: On Cupid! On, Donner and BARREL!
astrophysics, galaxies, goddard space flight center, Infrared Light, Missions, NASA Headquarters, Origin & Evolution of the Universe, Science & Research, Scientific Balloons, Tech Industry, Tech News, the milky way

NASA’s GUSTO Prepares to Map Space Between the Stars

December 18, 2023

NASA

On a vast ice sheet in Antarctica, scientists and engineers are preparing a NASA experiment called GUSTO to explore the universe on a balloon. GUSTO will launch from the Ross Ice Shelf, near the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station research base, no earlier than Dec. 21. GUSTO, which stands for Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz…
Read more: NASA’s GUSTO Prepares to Map Space Between the Stars
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NASA Scientific Balloons Ready for Flights Over Antarctica

November 27, 2023

Olivia F. Littleton

NASA kicks off its annual Antarctic Long Duration Balloon Campaign around Dec. 1, which includes three scientific balloon flights planned for launch from the long-duration balloon (LDB) Camp near McMurdo Station, Antarctica. NASA’s stadium-sized, zero-pressure balloons will support a total of five missions on the long-duration flights with one mission vying to break NASA’s heavy-lift,…
Read more: NASA Scientific Balloons Ready for Flights Over Antarctica