{ "id": 40491, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/", "page_type": "Gallery", "title": "Balloons", "description": "Since its establishment more than 30 years ago, the NASA Balloon Program has provided high-altitude scientific balloon platforms for scientific and technological investigations, including fundamental scientific discoveries that contribute to our understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe.\n\nBalloons have been used for decades to conduct scientific studies. They can be launched from locations across the globe and are a low-cost method to carry payloads with instruments that conduct scientific observations.\n\nThe primary objective of the NASA Balloon Program is to provide high altitude scientific balloon platforms for scientific and technological investigations.\n\nThese investigations include fundamental scientific discoveries that contribute to our understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe. Scientific balloons also provide a platform for the demonstration of promising new instrument and spacecraft technologies that enable or enhance the objectives for the Science Mission Directorate Strategic Plan.", "release_date": "2023-08-02T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-03-11T00:00:00-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 858880, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/gallery/SmallMissions/More_Info.jpg", "filename": "More_Info.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "\nFor over 40 years, NASA's Sounding Rocket Program has provided critical scientific, technical, and educational contributions to the nation's space program and is one of the most robust, versatile, and cost-effective flight programs at NASA. \n\nSounding rockets carry scientific instruments into space along a parabolic trajectory. Their overall time in space is brief, typically 5-20 minutes, and at lower vehicle speeds for a well-placed scientific experiment. The short time and low vehicle speeds are more than adequate (in some cases they are ideal) to carry out a successful scientific experiments. Furthermore, there are some important regions of space that are too low for satellites and thus sounding rockets provide the only platforms that can carry out measurements in these regions.\n\nGo to NASA.gov for the latest sounding rocket news.", "width": 180, "height": 320, "pixels": 57600 }, "media_groups": [ { "id": 371640, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371640", "widget": "Basic text (large)", "title": "Overview", "caption": "", "description": "Since its establishment more than 30 years ago, the NASA Balloon Program has provided high-altitude scientific balloon platforms for scientific and technological investigations, including fundamental scientific discoveries that contribute to our understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe.\n\nBalloons have been used for decades to conduct scientific studies. They can be launched from locations across the globe and are a low-cost method to carry payloads with instruments that conduct scientific observations.\n\nThe primary objective of the NASA Balloon Program is to provide high altitude scientific balloon platforms for scientific and technological investigations.\n\nThese investigations include fundamental scientific discoveries that contribute to our understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe. Scientific balloons also provide a platform for the demonstration of promising new instrument and spacecraft technologies that enable or enhance the objectives for the Science Mission Directorate Strategic Plan.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 376663, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_376663", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope)", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 444467, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 14726, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14726/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "EXCITE 2024: Launch and Recovery", "description": "On August 31, 2024, the EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) team conducted a test flight of their telescope from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.EXCITE's goal is to study atmospheres around hot Jupiters, gas giant exoplanets that complete an orbit once every one to two days and have temperatures in the thousands of degrees.The telescope is designed fly to about 132,000 feet (40 kilometers) via a scientific balloon filled with helium. That takes it above 99.5% of Earth’s atmosphere. At that altitude, it can observe multiple infrared wavelengths with little interference. In the future, EXCITE could take observations over both the north and south poles, although flights over Antarctica allow for longer-duration flights at a latitude optimum for observing planets for their entire orbit. || ", "release_date": "2024-11-25T00:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2024-11-22T13:33:51.882802-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 1139633, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014700/a014726/1-_EXCITE_Launch_searchweb.png", "filename": "1-_EXCITE_Launch_searchweb.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) mission prepares for launch via a scientific balloon in this photograph taken on Aug. 31, 2024, at NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.\r\rCredit: NASA/Sophia Roberts\r\rAlt text: A large vehicle hosts a telescope. \r\rImage description: A large vehicle stands in the center as dawn breaks over a desert landscape. The vehicle has a long arm extending forward. At the end of the arm dangles a shiny silver telescope. The top is conical, and various rectangular structures are attached to the bottoms and sides. The vehicle has lights along the arm that illuminate the telescope. There’s a truck parked to the vehicle’s left. In the distance, the sky is orange at the horizon, shading from purple to blue at the top of the image. There is a line of streaky clouds across the center.", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } } }, { "id": 444468, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 14725, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14725/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "EXCITE 2024: Payload Prep", "description": "In August 2024, the EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) team conducted a test flight of their telescope from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.EXCITE's goal is to study atmospheres around hot Jupiters, gas giant exoplanets that complete an orbit once every one to two days and have temperatures in the thousands of degrees.The telescope is designed fly to about 132,000 feet (40 kilometers) via a scientific balloon filled with helium. That takes it above 99.5% of Earth’s atmosphere. At that altitude, it can observe multiple infrared wavelengths with little interference. In the future, EXCITE could take observations over both Arctic and Antarctic, with the latter offering longer duration flights optimum for observing planets for their entire orbit. || ", "release_date": "2024-11-25T00:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2024-11-22T13:04:05.232318-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 1139619, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014700/a014725/EXCITE_Telescope_searchweb.png", "filename": "EXCITE_Telescope_searchweb.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "NASA Goddard astrophysicist Kyle Helson looks at EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) as it dangles from the ceiling of a hangar at NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.\r\rCredit: NASA/Sophia Roberts\r\rAlt text: A man looks at a large telescope in a hangar. \r\rImage description: A crane suspends a shiny silver telescope in a large hangar at night. The top is conical, with a section cut out for a cylinder. The body is rhombus-shaped and has two shiny rectangular panels attached to the bottom that extend slightly in front of the telescope. The background shows the hangar is full of equipment, and the foreground shows the outside of the building. There are orange cones in front of the hanger doors. A person in a reflective vest and hard hat stands to the left of the open doors.", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } } }, { "id": 444466, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 14650, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14650/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "EXCITE 2024: Infrared Detector and Spectrometer", "description": "EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) is designed to study atmospheres around exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, during long-duration scientific balloon trips over Antarctica.These images, taken in July 2024, show Peter Nagler and Nat DeNigris preparing EXCITE’s infrared detector and installing it into the mission’s spectrometer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. At the time, the EXCITE team was gearing up for a test flight in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. || ", "release_date": "2024-11-25T00:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2024-11-25T15:50:32.639947-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 1139699, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014600/a014650/EXCITE_Detector-15_print.jpg", "filename": "EXCITE_Detector-15_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) infrared detector, shown here, is a flight candidate from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph) instrument. Engineers mounted it to a copper base ahead of installing into to the mission’s spectrometer assembly. The detector allows EXCITE to collect spectroscopic measurements from 1 to 4 microns — the near-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. \r\rCredit: NASA/Sophia Roberts\r\rAlt text: EXCITE’s infrared detector on a lab bench\rImage description: A blue-gloved hand rests on a tabletop. One finger is placed on the copper base of an infrared detector. The detector is a purple square set within two silver triangles. A rectangular brown circuit board runs along the top. In the background are yellow- and red-handled screwdrivers and a black-and-white fan, all out of focus.", "width": 1024, "height": 683, "pixels": 699392 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371641, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371641", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "ComPair", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 462081, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 14794, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14794/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Developing NASA’s ComPair-2 Detectors", "description": "ComPair-2 will host a gamma-ray tracker with 10 layers, each with 380 silicon detectors, like the engineering test unit shown here. This trial version allows the mission team to test the electronics, measure how well the detectors work together, and develop assembly procedures for each layer. Credit: NASA/Sophia RobertsAlt text: Scientific hardware on a table Image description: A square piece of scientific hardware rests on a table on top of a silver cover. The hardware has a white board on the bottom with a silver peg at each corner. Inside the pegs is a black square with orange and green electronic components. The green runs along the bottom of the square and takes up the left corner of the black square. The orange electronic components run in 20 stripes along the black square. The orange is interspersed with black. || ComPair2-3_print.jpg (1024x683) [631.9 KB] || ComPair2-3.jpg (8192x5464) [29.1 MB] || ComPair2-3_searchweb.png (320x180) [124.5 KB] || ComPair2-3_web.png (320x213) [137.6 KB] || ComPair2-3_thm.png [28.0 KB] || ", "release_date": "2025-03-11T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-03-11T12:44:33-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1153310, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014700/a014794/Daniel_Violette_ComPair2-1_print.jpg", "filename": "Daniel_Violette_ComPair2-1_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Dan Violette, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Goddard, tips the engineering test unit toward the camera in the ComPair-2 lab. The black carbon fiber frame was fabricated at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and machined and assembled at Goddard.\rCredit: NASA/Sophia Roberts\rAlt text: A man holds a square piece of electronic equipment\rImage description: A man in a long-sleeved blue lab coat tips a square piece of electronic equipment toward the camera. The square has a white base, with a slightly smaller black square on top. Orange and black rows cover the black square, with green along the right side and covering the bottom right corner. The square rests on a lab bench covered in silver material.", "width": 1024, "height": 712, "pixels": 729088 } } }, { "id": 412635, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 14373, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14373/", "page_type": "Infographic", "title": "ComPair Infographic", "description": "Explore this infographic to learn more about ComPair and scientific ballooning.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterMachine-readable PDF copy || ComPair_Infographic_Final.jpg (5100x6600) [3.3 MB] || ComPair_Infographic_Final.png (5100x6600) [11.7 MB] || ComPair_Infographic_Final-half.jpg (2550x3300) [1.3 MB] || ComPair_Infographic_Final-half.png (2550x3300) [3.8 MB] || ", "release_date": "2023-08-08T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-08-09T13:12:03-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 857254, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014300/a014373/ComPair_Thumbnail_print.jpg", "filename": "ComPair_Thumbnail_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "These elements from the infographic above show the ComPair instrument on the left and its location on the gondola on the right.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } }, { "id": 412636, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 14372, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14372/", "page_type": "B-Roll", "title": "ComPair Thermal Vacuum Photos", "description": "Team members work on the ComPair balloon instrument before it begins testing in a thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. ComPair project manager Regina Caputo (front right), graduate student Nicholas Kirschner (George Washington University, left), and research scientist Nicholas Cannady (University of Maryland Baltimore County, rear) examine ComPair's various components to determine what needs to be “harnessed,” or connected via cable to power systems and the onboard computer.Credit: NASA/Scott Wiessinger || ComPair_TVac_IMG_2141.png (5319x3546) [30.9 MB] || ComPair_TVac_IMG_2141.jpg (5319x3546) [6.0 MB] || ComPair_TVac_IMG_2141_half.jpg (2659x1773) [1.4 MB] || ", "release_date": "2023-07-20T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-07-25T08:45:11-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 856273, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014300/a014372/ComPair_TVac_IMG_2159_searchweb.png", "filename": "ComPair_TVac_IMG_2159_searchweb.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Kirschner (left), Caputo (right), and Cannady (rear) continue to harness ComPair's four main components: tracker, high-resolution low-energy calorimeter, high-energy calorimeter, and anticoincidence detector.Credit: NASA/Scott Wiessinger", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } } }, { "id": 412637, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 14354, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14354/", "page_type": "B-Roll", "title": "ComPair Gamma-Ray Balloon Mission", "description": "Carolyn Kierans, principal investigator for the ComPair balloon mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, works on the instrument in this video. First, she assembles a layer of the tracker, which is housed in an aluminum casing. Next, she shows one of the tracker’s silicon detectors. Then she takes the lid off the tracker.Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts || Unassembled_Parts_of_ComPair.01740_print.jpg (1024x540) [148.3 KB] || Unassembled_Parts_of_ComPair.01740_searchweb.png (320x180) [94.0 KB] || Unassembled_Parts_of_ComPair.01740_thm.png (80x40) [7.0 KB] || Unassembled_Parts_of_ComPair.webm (4096x2160) [18.2 MB] || Unassembled_Parts_of_ComPair.mp4 (4096x2160) [570.8 MB] || ", "release_date": "2023-05-25T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-07-20T12:46:13-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 855344, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014300/a014354/Unassembled_Parts_of_ComPair.01740_print.jpg", "filename": "Unassembled_Parts_of_ComPair.01740_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Carolyn Kierans, principal investigator for the ComPair balloon mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, works on the instrument in this video. First, she assembles a layer of the tracker, which is housed in an aluminum casing. Next, she shows one of the tracker’s silicon detectors. Then she takes the lid off the tracker.Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts", "width": 1024, "height": 540, "pixels": 552960 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371642, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371642", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "GRIPS", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 412638, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 14197, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14197/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Scientists in the Field", "description": "Video compiliations of NASA scientists and partners working in the field. Available to download. || Researchers in volcanic regions. Footage from GIFT in Hawaii. || Compilation2-MaunaLoa.00015_print.jpg (1024x576) [166.4 KB] || Compilation2-MaunaLoa.00015_searchweb.png (320x180) [102.7 KB] || Compilation2-MaunaLoa.00015_thm.png (80x40) [7.6 KB] || Compilation2-MaunaLoa.webm (3840x2160) [57.4 MB] || Compilation2-MaunaLoa.mp4 (3840x2160) [1.1 GB] || ", "release_date": "2022-08-08T14:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T11:44:04.089738-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 369836, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014100/a014197/Compilation2-MaunaLoa.00015_print.jpg", "filename": "Compilation2-MaunaLoa.00015_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Researchers in volcanic regions. Footage from GIFT in Hawaii.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } }, { "id": 412639, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 12522, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12522/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA-funded Balloon Recovered From Antarctica", "description": "For 12 days in January 2016, a football-field-sized balloon with a telescope hanging beneath it floated 24 miles above the Antarctic continent, riding the spiraling polar vortex. On Jan. 31, 2016, scientists sent the pre-planned command to cut the balloon – and the telescope parachuted to the ground in the Queen Maud region of Antarctica. The telescope sat on the ice for an entire year. The scientists did quickly recover the data vaults from the NASA-funded mission, called GRIPS, which is short for Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares. But due to incoming winter weather – summer only runs October through February in Antarctica – they had to leave the remaining instruments on the ice and schedule a recovery effort for the following year. Finally, in January 2017, it was warm and safe enough to recover the instruments.For more information visit the NASA.gov feature. || ", "release_date": "2017-02-23T09:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:47:54.536027-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 415960, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012500/a012522/LARGE_MP4-12522_GRIPS_Balloon_MASTER_large.00394_print.jpg", "filename": "LARGE_MP4-12522_GRIPS_Balloon_MASTER_large.00394_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Complete transcript available.Music credit: \"Inducing Waves\" by Ben Niblett [PRS] and Jon Cotton [PRS] from Killer Tracks Music", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371643, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371643", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "Solar Scope", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 412640, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 13291, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13291/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA’s New Solar Scope Is Ready For Balloon Flight", "description": "NASA and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, or KASI, are getting ready to test a new way to see the Sun, high over the New Mexico desert. A pearlescent balloon — large enough to hug a football field — is scheduled to take flight no earlier than Aug. 26, 2019, carrying beneath it a solar scope called BITSE. BITSE is a coronagraph, a kind of telescope that blocks the Sun’s bright face in order to reveal its dimmer atmosphere, called the corona. Short for Balloon-borne Investigation of Temperature and Speed of Electrons in the corona, BITSE seeks to explain how the Sun spits out the solar wind. || ", "release_date": "2019-08-23T11:30:00-04:00", "update_date": "2020-01-23T07:22:34-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 393657, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a013200/a013291/BITSE_ReadyForFlight_YouTube.00283_print.jpg", "filename": "BITSE_ReadyForFlight_YouTube.00283_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Music credit: \"Gear Wheels\" by Fabrice Ravel Chapuis [SACEM] from Killer Tracks Complete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371644, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371644", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "Blue Clouds", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 412641, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 13073, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13073/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Rare Electric Blue Clouds Observed By NASA Balloon", "description": "On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds. Forming fifty miles above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds — PMCs. A recent NASA long-duration balloon mission observed these clouds over the course of five days at their home in the mesosphere. The resulting photos, which scientists have just begun to analyze, will help us better understand turbulence in the atmosphere, as well as in oceans, lakes, and other planetary atmospheres, and may even improve weather forecasting.For more information: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-balloon-mission-captures-electric-blue-clouds || ", "release_date": "2018-09-20T14:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:46:25.963982-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 400268, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a013000/a013073/PMCs.gif", "filename": "PMCs.gif", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A GIF optimized for Twitter. Cameras aboard the balloon captured 6 million high-resolution images of polar mesospheric clouds that reveal processes leading to turbulence - chaotic movement in the atmosphere that can influence weather and climate, and their predictions. ", "width": 1041, "height": 677, "pixels": 704757 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371645, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371645", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "PIPER", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 412642, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 12968, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12968/", "page_type": "Infographic", "title": "PIPER Infographic", "description": "The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) is a NASA scientific balloon mission that will fly to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere to study twisty patterns of light in the universe’s “baby picture.” This infographic highlights some facts about PIPER’s instruments, capabilities and goals.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMachine-readable PDF copy || PIPER_Infographic_FINAL_Medium.jpg (1500x1941) [902.2 KB] || PIPER_Infographic_FINAL_Small.jpg (1000x1294) [469.6 KB] || PIPER_Infographic_FINAL.jpg (5100x6600) [6.6 MB] || PIPER_Infographic_FINAL.png (5100x6600) [15.3 MB] || PIPER_Infographic_FINAL_half.jpg (2550x3300) [1.7 MB] || PIPER_Infographic_FINAL_half.png (2550x3300) [6.9 MB] || ", "release_date": "2018-09-11T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-08-03T12:58:14.418726-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 400440, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012900/a012968/PIPER_Still_16x9_print.jpg", "filename": "PIPER_Still_16x9_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) is a NASA scientific balloon mission that will study twisty patterns of light in the cosmic microwave background — a faint glow permeating the universe in all directions and leftover from the period following the big bang.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371646, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371646", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "SuperTIGER", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 412643, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 12783, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12783/", "page_type": "Infographic", "title": "SuperTIGER Ready to Fly Again in Study of Heavy Cosmic Rays", "description": "SuperTIGER team members Brian Rauch, Jason Link and Nathan Walsh join NASA Blueshift's Sara Mitchell for a Skype conversation in November 2017 about the instrument's science, technology and upcoming launch from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterComplete transcript available. || SuperTIGER_Skype_Still.png (1280x720) [1.2 MB] || SuperTIGER_Skype2.webm (1280x720) [135.1 MB] || SuperTIGER_Skype2.mp4 (1280x720) [608.6 MB] || SuperTIGER_Skype2_SRT_Captions.en_US.srt [22.5 KB] || SuperTIGER_Skype2_SRT_Captions.en_US.vtt [22.5 KB] || SuperTIGER_Skype2_best.mp4 (1280x720) [1.2 GB] || ", "release_date": "2017-12-06T12:45:00-05:00", "update_date": "2020-01-23T07:32:08-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 409214, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012700/a012783/SuperTIGER_Name_STILL.jpg", "filename": "SuperTIGER_Name_STILL.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371647, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371647", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "COSI", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 412644, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 12262, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12262/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA Launches Super-Pressure Balloon", "description": "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 the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) gamma-ray telescope as a mission of opportunity.Another mission of opportunity is the Carolina Infrasound instrument, a small, 3-kilogram payload with infrasound microphones designed to record acoustic wave field activity in the stratosphere. Developed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, previous balloon flights of the instrument have recorded low-frequency sounds in the stratosphere, some of which are believed to be new to science.As the balloon travels around the Earth, it may be visible from the ground, particularly at sunrise and sunset, to those who live in the southern hemisphere’s mid-latitudes, such as Argentina and South Africa.NASA’s scientific balloons offer low-cost, near-space access for conducting scientific investigations in fields such as astrophysics, heliophysics and atmospheric research.NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Orbital ATK, which operates NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services and field operations for NASA’s scientific balloon program. The CSBF team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons in the over 35 years of operation.Track the flight's progress in real-time here. || ", "release_date": "2016-05-19T19:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:48:36.418353-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 424144, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012262/YOUTUBE_HQ-12262_Balloons1080_youtube_hq.00001_print.jpg", "filename": "YOUTUBE_HQ-12262_Balloons1080_youtube_hq.00001_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Complete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Music credits: The Answer by Laurent Levesque in the KillerTracks catalog.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371648, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371648", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "BETTII", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 412645, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 20235, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20235/", "page_type": "Animation", "title": "BETII Balloon animation", "description": "Balloon ascent animation 1 || BETTIIRisingFinal_print.jpg (576x1024) [62.9 KB] || BETTIIRisingFinal_searchweb.png (320x180) [67.7 KB] || BETTIIRisingFinal_thm.png (80x40) [5.3 KB] || BETTIIRisingFinal.mov (1920x1080) [1.6 GB] || BETTIIRisingFinal_h264.mov (1920x1080) [177.8 MB] || BETTIIRisingFinal.webm (1920x1080) [753.2 KB] || These animations show the BETII payload ascending via balloon. || ", "release_date": "2016-03-09T15:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:48:49.687731-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 426244, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a020000/a020200/a020235/BETTIIRisingFinal_print.jpg", "filename": "BETTIIRisingFinal_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Balloon ascent animation 1", "width": 576, "height": 1024, "pixels": 589824 } } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 371649, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/balloons/#media_group_371649", "widget": "Card gallery", "title": "CREAM", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 412646, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 3103, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3103/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "NASA Balloon Makes Record-Breaking Flight", "description": "The Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) project used a Ultra Long Duration Balloon(ULDB) to observe special features and/or changes related to a supernova acceleration limit. || ", "release_date": "2005-01-26T12:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:56:21.594348-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 515444, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003100/a003103/cream_trajectory_axis.0000.jpg", "filename": "cream_trajectory_axis.0000.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This animation shows the path of the CREAM balloon during its record-breaking flight. The first circumnavigation path is seen in red. The second is shown in green and the third in yellow.", "width": 720, "height": 486, "pixels": 349920 } } } ], "extra_data": {} } ] }