Launch Day!

Posted on May 18, 2016 by cliosleator

If you’ve been following our Twitter, you’ll know that we had a successful launch yesterday! I think it’s safe to say that we were all pretty surprised: from the forecast, it looked like the winds might not line up right and that there might be some safety issues with the trajectory as the balloon ascended to float altitude. But everything turned around, and we had a great launch on a beautiful day! Continue reading →

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Ashraf’s

Posted on May 11, 2016 by cliosleator

We have some very sad news to report: Ashraf’s is closing for two months 🙁

Ashraf’s is an Indian restaurant in Wanaka, and it’s definitely the best one. There are four Indian restaurants in town, and most of us have tried all of them. We liked Ashraf’s so much that one week we went there 5 times. As yesterday was their last night, we went there for the past three nights in a row. Continue reading →

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COSI Launch Attempt #3!

Posted on April 26, 2016 by ckierans

Update @ 1:45am:

COSI is in the hangar ready to be picked up by the gondola! We’re having our third launch attempt this morning, aiming for a launch around 9am. The weather isn’t looking perfect, but we don’t want to miss the chance just in case it turns around. We’ll keep you updated on Facebook, Twitter, and here. Continue reading →

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COSI Launch Attempt #2!

Posted on April 18, 2016 by ckierans

Update @ 3:15am:
The COSI team has finished their pre-flight checkouts and is ready to be moved to the flight line! The weather seems to be stable, so this might be it!

Watch the action live: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-csbf-ldsd. Continue reading →

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Launch Attempt Tomorrow!

Posted on April 18, 2016 by ckierans

COSI will be picked up at 1am for a launch around 8am (1pm PDT). Stay tuned for updates here and on our Facebook and Twitter pages. You can watch the launch and pre-launch activity at the CSBF site.

 

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COSI Flight Operations

Posted on April 17, 2016 by brentm

We often refer to the term Flight Operations to mean the monitoring and controlling of COSI in flight.  Operations is a very crucial part of a successful flight, as it’s how we ensure COSI is working to the best of its ability throughout the flight.  Thanks to our various communications links, as outlined in Talking to COSI, we can monitor and control many aspects of COSI in real-time during the flight.

Continue reading →

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Talking to COSI

Posted on April 15, 2016 by brentm

A lot of people ask us if/how we talk to COSI in flight.  We actually have 4 different ways of communicating with our instrument, each with different ways of sending/receiving data and, most noticeably, different speeds.  Here’s a summary of the different communications links. Continue reading →

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Why hasn’t COSI launched yet?

Posted on April 14, 2016 by cliosleator

We’ve been waiting for a good launch day since April 1, and two weeks later we’ve only had one launch attempt that got canceled due to weather. A common question from friends and family back home is: what’s wrong with the weather? Continue reading →

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Wine Tasting

Posted on April 13, 2016 by brentm

Waiting around for perfect weather, we spent the first few days working on our telemetry and analysis tools that we will use to monitor the instrument from the ground.  Since then, however, the pressure has let up some and we’ve had a few chances to enjoy ourselves.

Yesterday, some of us took off the afternoon to go wine tasting in Bannockburn. Continue reading →

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First Launch Attempt!

Posted on April 8, 2016 by ckierans

We’re working during the wee hours here in New Zealand to prepare for our first launch attempt. Watch the action at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-csbf-ldsd and follow COSI’s live tweets. Continue reading →

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