NASA Balloon Campaign Concludes with Final Science Flight
NASA Science ·
The final mission of NASA’s fall balloon campaign successfully concluded, the reflight of the CORSAIR/WASP. The mission launched from the agency’s facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, at 7:30 a.m. MDT (9:30 a.m. EDT) on Oct. 5, 2026, after it aborted on Sept. 19. The balloon and payload reached a float altitude of around 102,000 […] The post NASA Balloon Campaign Concludes with Final Science Flight appeared first on NASA Science .
The final mission of NASA’s fall balloon campaign successfully concluded, the reflight of the CORSAIR/WASP. The mission launched from the agency’s facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, at 7:30 a.m. MDT (9:30 a.m. EDT) on Oct. 5, 2026, after it aborted on Sept. 19 .
The balloon and payload reached a float altitude of around 102,000 feet, and flew for a total of 8 hours, 28 minutes.
CORSAIR is a new science payload to study the Sun’s corona using the Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP) , a specialized platform that can point scientific instruments at targets during flight at sub-arc-second accuracy. This flight will demonstrate the payload’s capabilities for a potential future Antarctica mission to observe the Sun over one solar rotation, which would take at least 27 days.
The post NASA Balloon Campaign Concludes with Final Science Flight appeared first on NASA Science .