NASA's big balloon given 'go' for launch

The Ultra Long Duration Balloon prior to launch in February

(CNN) -- A massive balloon designed to measure cosmic radiation may be launched again as early as Friday from Alice Springs, Australia, according to project manager Steve Smith.

"We're ready to go and it's been a long time coming," Smith told CNN.com on Thursday.

Smith said that if weather permits, the Ultra Long Duration Balloon, or ULDB, could lift off between 6 and 7 p.m. EST on Friday.

Scientists tried to launch the balloon on Thursday, but one of the support vehicles got stuck up to its axles in mud. Smith said a bulldozer would be used to free the vehicle.

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The normally dry Australian Outback has been deluged with rain in recent days.

This would be the second launch attempt for the ULDB. The balloon developed a leak at 85,000 feet four hours after launch on February 25 and sank back to the ground.

Smith said the project managers are trying to determine if a problem with the balloon's filmy material caused the collapse. Such a problem could set the ULDB program back a year, he said.

The helium balloon will carry up $1 million worth of measuring equipment and is designed to inflate slowly to the size of football field as it nears the edge of space.

ULDB will fly above 99 percent of the Earth's atmosphere at 115,000 feet (35 km), up to four times higher than passenger planes fly.

The balloon's experiment package, called Nightglow, will monitor background radiation from moonlight, starlight and other sources.

If the test is successful, the balloon will stay up about two weeks and circumnavigate the globe.

NASA eventually plans to float balloons for up to 100 days for high altitude research.

Smith said the balloons would give scientists a cheap way to observe deep space events.

"It offers a very low cost option of getting space science," he said.

NASA's big balloon falls back to Earth
February 26, 2001

ULDB - NASA's Ultra Long Duration Balloon Project

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