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!
Helium, balloon, parachute, launch vehicle and COSI on the flight line
COSI hanging from the launch vehicle
The riggers laying out the balloon. The balloon is wrapped in the pink plastic, and being taken out of its box on the truck.
The balloon on the spool
The balloon, the launch vehicle, and COSI
Inflating the tow balloon
The tow balloon, the main balloon, and COSI (this plane was in the way of a lot of my photos)
Partial group picture while waiting for the balloon to inflate
We tried to do a group high five, but it didn’t work out that well
Release of the tow balloon
The tow balloon going up
The tow balloon coming down
The balloon going up!
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Releasing the payload
Close up of COSI ascending
The balloon and COSI heading up
The balloon as a little spec
We’ve been monitoring COSI since launch and it’s looking good! We’re also packing up the lab so that we can come home. Once there, we’ll be doing more monitoring and analysis. Check out CSBF’s website to see COSI’s trajectory as it goes around the earth! (http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/map/balloon9/flight669nt.htm)
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