Big balloon test flight ends early

Ultra Long Duration Balloon in February test flight

(CNN) -- A massive balloon designed to measure cosmic radiation made a successful, though abbreviated, test flight Friday in Australia, according to project managers at NASA.

According to a statement on the Web site for the Ultra Long Duration Balloon, or ULDB, the test flight was a success and all "pre-flight minimum success criteria" were met.

The balloon lifted off from Alice Springs, Australia, and stayed aloft for 24 hours and 42 minutes. NASA had hoped to keep the balloon up as long as two weeks.

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A spokeswoman for the project said the day after launch, the balloon failed to regain its proper daytime pressure. Managers decided to bring it down over the coast of Australia rather than allow it to float out over the ocean.

According the Web site statement, balloon operators were told the ULDB wasn't performing as it should and that it was not a "healthy balloon."

Both the balloon and its experiment package fell to the ground near the western coast of Australia -- a support aircraft located them.

Officials said the balloon made it to an altitude of 112,000 feet, very close to the test flight goal of 115,000 feet.

"Although, the ULDB launch and ascent were very close to normal, the balloon's internal pressure was less -- but within acceptable margins -- than we expected on Saturday afternoon and evening," said Steve Smith, Chief of the Balloon Program Office at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility.

Smith added in a statment that a NASA team would review the data and examine the recovered balloon prior to a scheduled flight from Antarctica in December of this year.

Friday's launch was the second for the ULDB project. Following its initial launch on February 25, the balloon developed a leak at 85,000 feet after four hours of flight and sank back to the ground.

The ULDB eventually is expected to fly above 99 percent of the Earth's atmosphere at 115,000 feet (35 km), nearly four times higher than passenger planes fly. The balloons would be used for high altitude research flights lasting up to 100 days.

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NASA's Ultra Long Duration Balloon Project

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