Discovery: Giant NASA Balloon Crashes, Destroys Telescope

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bystander
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Discovery: Giant NASA Balloon Crashes, Destroys Telescope

Post by bystander » Thu Apr 29, 2010 3:37 pm

Giant NASA balloon crashes, destroys telescope
Discovery Space News - 29 April 2010
A gigantic NASA balloon designed to carry science instruments to the edge of space crashed during takeoff from Australia’s Alice Springs launch site on Thursday, destroying a multimillion-dollar telescope.

The Nuclear Compton Telescope, owned by University of California at Berkeley, was designed to study the polarization of gamma rays and other astrophysical phenomena. It was serving as a test bed for instruments being developed for the Advanced Compton Telescope, scheduled to be launched in 2015, according to the project’s website.

NASA is still trying to sort out what happened, but a video taken by an ABC News team shows the balloon’s undercarriage coming loose, smashing through a fence and toppling an SUV before landing in pieces on the ground.
Giant NASA balloon crashes in Australia
PhysOrg Space News - 29 April 2010
A giant NASA science balloon crashed during take-off in Australia Thursday, destroying its multi-million-dollar payload, toppling a large car and narrowly missing frightened observers.
Huge NASA Science Balloon Crashes in Australian Outback
Space.com - 29 April 2010
A huge NASA balloon loaded with two telescopes painstakingly built to scan the sky at wavelengths invisible to the human eye crashed in the Australian outback Thursday, destroying the astronomy experiments and just missing nearby onlookers, according to Australian media reports.

In dramatic video released by the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC), the giant 400-foot (121-meter) balloon is seen just beginning to lift its multi-million payload, then the telescope gondola appears to unexpectedly come loose from its carriage. The telescopes crash through a fence and overturn a nearby parked sport utility vehicle before finally stopping.

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neufer
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Re: Discovery: Giant NASA Balloon Crashes, Destroys Telescop

Post by neufer » Thu Apr 29, 2010 4:03 pm

Art Neuendorffer

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