NASA's Flight Opportunities Program marked its first high-altitude balloon payload flight recently when one of the program's flight providers, Near Space Corporation (NSC) of Tillamook, Ore., launched a developmental technology payload on a high-altitude balloon.
With Mount Jefferson in Oregon's Cascade Range as a backdrop, NSC personnel sent the balloon aloft to an altitude of about 102,000 feet – just over 20 miles – after launch from the airport at Madras, Ore., Jan. 20. Suspended underneath the balloon was a data acquisition system payload developed by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) that would monitor the reliability of a commercial space vehicle's structure.
"The NSC high altitude balloons provide a cost-effective platform to enable technology development payloads to be tested in a realistic, space-like operational environment," said Bruce Webbon of NASA's Ames Research Center, campaign manager for the launch. "Conducting such tests is fundamental to achieving the Flight Opportunities Program's goals of advancing technology maturation."
NMT professor Andrei Zagrai said a team of NMT engineering students designed and built the monitoring system to determine structural integrity for space vehicles, which is especially important for reusable craft re-entering the atmosphere. He said the technical university is focused not only on educating a new generation of engineers, but also on providing practical experience to their students.
With Mount Jefferson in Oregon's Cascade Range as a backdrop, NSC personnel sent the balloon aloft to an altitude of about 102,000 feet – just over 20 miles – after launch from the airport at Madras, Ore., Jan. 20. Suspended underneath the balloon was a data acquisition system payload developed by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) that would monitor the reliability of a commercial space vehicle's structure.
"The NSC high altitude balloons provide a cost-effective platform to enable technology development payloads to be tested in a realistic, space-like operational environment," said Bruce Webbon of NASA's Ames Research Center, campaign manager for the launch. "Conducting such tests is fundamental to achieving the Flight Opportunities Program's goals of advancing technology maturation."
NMT professor Andrei Zagrai said a team of NMT engineering students designed and built the monitoring system to determine structural integrity for space vehicles, which is especially important for reusable craft re-entering the atmosphere. He said the technical university is focused not only on educating a new generation of engineers, but also on providing practical experience to their students.
