Abstract The catastrophic balloon failures during the first half of the 1980's were devastating to the USA scientific ballooning community as well as balloon users from other countries. Confidence in the balloons reached an all time low with success rates of 50% or lower being experienced across all payload ranges. An intensive investigation by the USA National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was initiated in 1983 to identify the cause(s) of the failures. Findings from the investigation resulted with NASA implementing a new balloon design and flight philosophy for all NASA scientific balloons. The NASA Balloon Program philosophy and criteria for scientific balloon design and flight are presented.
NASA balloon design and flight: Philosophy and criteria
Advances in Space Research ; 13 , 2 ; 59-62
1992-01-01
4 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
NASA balloon design and flight - Philosophy and criteria
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