B5
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 2021
NASA launches research balloon over state
By KYLE SPURR
The Bulletin
MADRAS
—
The
150-foot-tall balloon, made
of plastic thinner than a sand-
wich bag, rose above the high
desert at sunrise with the goal
of helping future missions in
space.
The helium-fi lled balloon
shined in the early morning
sunlight as it disappeared into
the atmosphere, on its way to
an altitude of 110,000 feet.
A
NASA-sponsored
research team launched
the balloon at about 6 a.m.
Thursday from the Madras
Municipal Airport. The bal-
loon carried a 100-pound
cone-shaped device that later
in the day was dropped with a
parachute over the high des-
ert east of Prineville.
“That went well,” said
Kevin Tucker, president of the
Tillamook-based Near Space
Corp., who oversaw the test
fl ight. “It’s always interesting.
The wind was actually chang-
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Near Space Corp. personnel prepare to launch a large helium-fi lled balloon, in the background,
from Madras Municipal Airport on Thursday.
ing, and that’s a big deal. We
were very careful about that.”
Tucker’s company, which
produces balloons for sci-
entifi c tests, partnered with
researchers from the Univer-
sity of Kentucky to launch
the balloon and test a delivery
system that could be used to
return individual items from
the International Space Sta-
tion back to Earth. The team
tracked the balloon’s fl ight
Thursday and recovered the
dropped device.
“The Kentucky team will
be gathering a lot of data as
this travels from 110,000 feet
back to the Earth’s surface,”
Tucker said before the fl ight.
The university engineer-
ing students call the delivery
system the Kentucky Re-En-
try Universal Payload System.
Their research was sponsored
by NASA’s Flight Opportu-
nities program, said NASA
spokesperson Megan Person.
“The fl ight aims to enable
testing of the technology’s
electronics and communica-
tions systems in preparation
for further research as part of
a commercial resupply mis-
sion to the International Space
Station later this year,” Person
said.
NASA regularly identifi es
projects, such as the balloon
launch, and connects research
teams with companies and
locations to help generate a
test. In this case, NASA con-
nected the Kentucky students
with Tucker’s company and
coordinated with the Madras
airport.
“Today’s successful fl ight
is one example of how the
Flight Opportunities pro-
gram helps advance promis-
ing space technologies before
they move on to riskier orbital
missions,” said Paul De Leon,
NASA Flight Opportunities
campaign manager.
Tucker and his crew orig-
inally scheduled the balloon
fl ight Wednesday, but called
it off because of high winds.
On Thursday, conditions
were mild enough to allow
the launch.
Tucker said Madras was
the ideal location for the bal-
loon fl ight. The open spaces
around Madras off er several
options to drop and retrieve
the device from the balloon,
Tucker said.
In addition, the Madras
airport is smaller and qui-
eter than other commercial
airports in the region, which
allows the team to work with-
out interfering with other air-
craft. The team still has to
coordinate with the Federal
Aviation Administration.
“The airport doesn’t have a
huge amount of traffi c,” Tucker
said. “We are not causing may-
hem if we do a launch.”
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