Record-setting balloon skirts edge of space

NASA research balloon inflated before flight.

(CNN) -- The largest balloon ever successfully launched floated to the fringes of the upper atmosphere this week, loaded with space science equipment to study cosmic rays, NASA said.

The mammoth airship had a volume of 60 million cubic feet (1.7 million cubic meters) and reached a height of 30.5 miles (49 km), according to the space agency.

Made of a thin polyethylene material, about the same thinness as household plastic wrap, it began its flight from Lynn Lake, a small gold mining town in Manitoba, Canada.

The milestone sky trip thrilled researchers who rely on high-altitude balloons equipped with sophisticated instruments to conduct an assortment of space-related experiments.

"Aside from our excitement and the fact that this balloon established a new record for balloon volume, this flight should help establish a new platform for science such as ultraviolet and X-ray astronomy," said Steve Smith of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center balloon facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.

The balloon, carried experiments called the Anti-Electron Sub Orbital Payload (AESOP) and Low Energy Electrons (LEE) to observe cosmic rays. The latter alone weighed 1,500 pounds (690 kgs).

It is 50 percent more voluminous than standard NASA research balloons, which are 40 million cubic feet (1.1 million cubic meters) in volume and could hold two 747 aircrafts back-to-back inside.

Like previous scientific flights, the unmanned balloon, once the tests were finished, was ordered by radio command to drop its experimental payload, which drifted down via parachute to the ground.

Within hours, recovery teams picked up the data tapes, which scientists will analyze as part of their cosmic ray research.

"This is a demonstration that balloons can reach extreme altitudes with relatively heavy payloads," said Danny Ball of the National Scientific balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, which conducted the launch for NASA.

"We hope this will lead to new interest from other science disciplines needing very high altitudes," he said.

Large unmanned helium balloons provide a comparatively cheap method to place scientific experiments in a space-like environment.

Many scientific observations in fields such as X-ray, gamma ray and infrared astronomy have been made from such balloons.

In May, a Japanese balloon set the world altitude record for unmanned balloons, according to the main institute dedicated to space and aeronautical science in Japan.

The balloon soared to 33 miles (53 km), slightly higher than the previous record that stood for 30 years, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science said.