NASA's Super-Tiger Balloon Sets Flight Record
Posted on January 25, 2013
NASA's Super-Tiger Balloon has set a record for the longest flight by a balloon of its size. The 39-million cubic foot balloon orbits around the South Pole, where it takes advantage of the stratospheric anti-cyclonic wind pattern. You can find the current position of the balloon here.
The balloon has been afloat for over 46 days. It carries the 6,000-pound Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (Super-TIGER) experiment, which measures rare heavy elements in galactic cosmic rays bombarding the Earth.
John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a press release, "This is an outstanding achievement for NASA's Astrophysics balloon team. Keeping these huge balloons aloft for such long periods lets us do forefront science that would be difficult to do otherwise."
Here is a video of the balloon launch last year from the long duration balloon site near McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Take a look:
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