After a successful launch and more than a day in flight, NASA’s second super pressure balloon (SPB) carrying EUSO-2 developed a leak, and flight controllers have terminated the flight over the Pacific Ocean.

The scientific balloon launched from Wānaka Airport on Saturday (May 13) at 12:02pm and was in flight for one day, 12 hours, and 53 minutes before the termination.

“This is an unfortunate end to the mission and we will investigate the cause to help us continue to improve the super pressure balloon technology,” NASA scientific balloon programme chief Debbie Fairbrother said.

During flight, the SPB began experiencing a leak and teams attempted to troubleshoot by dropping ballast to maintain the balloon’s altitude. 

The determination was made to safely terminate over the Pacific Ocean. 

NASA conducted a thorough environmental analysis of an open-ocean landing before beginning its mid-latitude flight program in 2015. The open-ocean flight termination procedure makes use of the two-ton flight payload as an anchor to pull the entire balloon flight train to the bottom of the ocean as quickly as possible. 

In this way, the balloon does not remain in the primary water column zone where most marine species are known to live, minimising environmental impacts.

The first super pressure balloon carrying SuperBIT continues to perform nominally on its fourth revolution of the southern hemisphere. 

That mission launched at 11:42am, Sunday, April 16.

The launch was the second and final for NASA’s 2023 New Zealand balloon launch campaign.

PHOTO: NASA/Bill Rodman