NASA Balloon Mission Prepares for Second Launch in Southern Hemisphere

NASA Balloon Mission Prepares for Second Launch in Southern Hemisphere
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 02, 2025

The second scientific balloon slated for NASA's 2025 New Zealand Super Pressure Balloon Campaign is prepared for launch, pending suitable weather at the Wanaka Airport mid-latitude facility. This mission marks the final flight of the current campaign.

Filled with 18.8 million cubic feet (532,000 cubic meters) of helium, the super pressure balloon will traverse the Southern Hemisphere's mid-latitudes for a planned duration of up to 100 days. Its purpose is to further demonstrate the viability of super pressure balloon technology while supporting a suite of secondary experiments.

Among the onboard instruments is the Compact Multichannel Imaging Camera (CoMIC), a payload led by the University of Massachusetts Lowell. CoMIC will measure atmospheric scattering of light and detect airglow emissions in red and green wavelengths at high altitudes.

The High-altitude Infrasound from Geophysical Sources (HIGS) experiment, jointly operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, will monitor atmospheric pressure changes to detect signals from geophysical phenomena such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The data may inform future efforts to measure Venusian seismic activity using high-altitude balloons.

Another experiment, Measuring Ocean Acoustics North of Antarctica (MOANA), is a collaboration between Sandia and the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. MOANA is designed to capture low-frequency sound waves in the stratosphere, below the threshold of human hearing.

The INterim Dynamics Instrumentation for Gondolas (INDIGO), developed by NASA's Balloon Program Office at Wallops Flight Facility, will record gondola shock data during key flight phases including launch, descent, and landing.

Additionally, the Sensor Package for Attitude, Rotation, and Relative Observable Winds - 7 (SPARROW-7), also developed by NASA's Balloon Program Office, will test a new ultrasonic system for capturing wind speed and direction in the balloon's float environment.

All mission teams remain on standby, awaiting favorable weather conditions to initiate launch procedures. Meanwhile, the campaign's first balloon continues its global circumnavigation and is nearing completion of its first loop around the Southern Hemisphere.