NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program successfully launched its football-stadium-sized, heavy-lift super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wānaka Airport at 11:42am today (Sunday, April 16), on a mission planned for 100 or more days.

The balloon is carrying the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT), from Princeton University, which uses a wide field of view to image large galaxy clusters from a balloon platform in a near-space environment.

“Mother Nature shined down beautifully today giving us the perfect conditions for a brilliant launch,” NASA’s scientific balloon program chief Debbie Fairbrother said. 

“I’m excited for this mission and the cutting-edge science it will perform.”

The balloon will float at 33.5 km with the winds carrying it about the southern hemisphere's mid-latitude band.

The super pressure balloon fully inflated after it launched.

A balloon’s flight path is controlled by the wind speed and direction at float altitude.

A second SPB flight is planned from Wānaka and will fly the Extreme Universe Space Observatory 2 (EUSO-2), which will detect ultra-high energy cosmic-ray particles from beyond our galaxy as they penetrate Earth’s atmosphere. 

The origins of these particles are not well known, so the data collected from EUSO-2 will help solve this science mystery.

Wānaka is NASA’s dedicated launch site for mid-latitude, long-duration balloon missions and it

conducts SPB launches in collaboration with the Queenstown Airport Corporation, Queenstown Lake District Council, New Zealand Space Agency, and Airways New Zealand.

The NASA Scientific Balloon Program is funded by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division.

Find out more information on NASA's Scientific Balloon Program here.

Track the balloon flight in the Wānaka App’s Balloon tracking section.

PHOTOS: NASA/Bill Rodman