NASA Space Balloon Crashed Hard on the Ground
Posted Fri, Apr 30, 2010 by Juan Pablo
Venturing into space and discovering answers to unsolved mysteries is a very exhilarating experience but these space projects are some of the very expensive ones that chew great chunks of funds from the national budget. Although it is a necessary expenditure to know more about the deep space, study celestial bodies and phenomena and also to monitor our world from another perspective miles and miles away, the risks to the lives of the people and the safety of delicate equipments worth million of dollars is also astronomical. The most recent failed launch and disheartening crash from NASA in the desolate Australian outback just proves that exploring the final frontier is no joke and indeed a very serious matter.
The video of the failed launch was captured and broadcast live by network Australian Broadcasting Corporation from the Alice Springs Balloon Launching Center in a secluded area on the northern territory of Australia. The titanic 121-meter (400 feet) space balloon was just starting to rise up to the skies while carrying its payload when the gondola inexplicably detached from its carriage and came crashing down. The dysfunctional balloon was built by NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas and NASA officials are deep in the investigation process to uncover answers about the tragic incident.
Although no one was hurt from the launch gone awry, it was a shattering day for those involved in the project especially those who poured out blood, sweat and tear to develop and finish the $2-million-dollar telescope. The Nuclear Compton Telescope destroyed in the crash was built by astronomer Steven Boggs and his team of scientists from the University of California. It is a gamma-ray telescope which was intended to study observe astrophysical sources in space.
- Login to post comments
