NASA Launches Super-Pressure Balloon

NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, at 11:35 a.m. Tuesday, May 17, (7:35 p.m. EDT Monday, May 16) on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world test flight. The balloon flies at an altitude of about 110,000 feet, in a layer of Earth’s atmosphere known as the stratosphere. The purpose of the flight is to test and validate the SPB technology with the goal of long-duration flight (100 days) at mid-latitudes. In addition, the gondola is carrying th