Huge NASA Science Balloon Crashes in Australian Outback

Dark Knight

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A huge NASA balloon loaded with a telescope painstakingly built to scan the sky at wavelengths invisible to the human eye crashed in the Australian outback Thursday, destroying the astronomy experiment and just missing nearby onlookers, according to Australian media reports.

In dramatic video released by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the giant 400-foot (121-meter) balloon is seen just beginning to lift its payload, then the telescope gondola appears to unexpectedly come loose from its carriage. The telescopes crash through a fence and overturn a nearby parked sport utility vehicle before finally stopping.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100429/sc_space/hugenasascienceballooncrashesinaustralianoutback

Video of the crash is at the above link.
 
whoops....see where those Obama cutbacks of the NASA programs gets us??????


j/k of course
 
I hate the space program. What a huge waste of tax payers money. Big boys and their toys is all it is IMO.
 
Is saddened by the loss of NCT (scope the balloon was taking up).

On the lighter side, we just celebrated 20 years of Hubble flying high and delivering much success.
 
I hate the space program. What a huge waste of tax payers money. Big boys and their toys is all it is IMO.

We have spent billions on this program, but the benefits to us are not limited to those who "play" with the toys....there are thousands of items used by us every single day that came directly out of the NASA research and space flight program. The link below lists just a few and most people would be surprised to find out that NASA money provided these things to our daily lives.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/ten-nasa-inventions9.htm


AND...here's another good one that includes a few different ones such as cardiac pacemakers:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/10/04/nasa.everyday/index.html

OH.....and also should be mentioned would be the computer and components that you are using to read this post with.....THANKS NASA
 
I hate the space program. What a huge waste of tax payers money. Big boys and their toys is all it is IMO.

Wow...are you serious? If you are, I'll just point out that NASA has contributed significantly to scientific advancement in our society (and other societies, for that matter). This is a touchy subject for me since:

a) I live in Orlando and have many ties to the Cape
b) My brother works for NASA on the shuttle crawler
c) I worked for many years training astronauts at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

Since I am emotionally involved in this subject, though, it is probably best for me to not debate you on this.
 
We have spent billions on this program, but the benefits to us are not limited to those who "play" with the toys....there are thousands of items used by us every single day that came directly out of the NASA research and space flight program. The link below lists just a few and most people would be surprised to find out that NASA money provided these things to our daily lives.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/ten-nasa-inventions9.htm


AND...here's another good one that includes a few different ones such as cardiac pacemakers:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/10/04/nasa.everyday/index.html

I should have read to the bottom of the thread before I posted!! You were better than I was, though....you posted links!
 
Wow...are you serious? If you are, I'll just point out that NASA has contributed significantly to scientific advancement in our society (and other societies, for that matter). This is a touchy subject for me since:

a) I live in Orlando and have many ties to the Cape
b) My brother works for NASA on the shuttle crawler
c) I worked for many years training astronauts at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

Since I am emotionally involved in this subject, though, it is probably best for me to not debate you on this.

We are a NASA household, too (Goddard & STScI at Johns Hopkins... J was on the Hubble project before it even had a name)... I totally understand.
 
It was all a hoax. The balloon was from Walmart, the rest of the stuff was done with trick photography and leggos.

Come on, balloons don't float up in the air in Australia because they are at the bottom of the earth.
 
it was all a hoax. The balloon was from walmart, the rest of the stuff was done with trick photography and leggos.

Come on, balloons don't float up in the air in australia because they are at the bottom of the earth.

rotflmao!!!!!!!
 
Wow...are you serious? If you are, I'll just point out that NASA has contributed significantly to scientific advancement in our society (and other societies, for that matter). This is a touchy subject for me since:

a) I live in Orlando and have many ties to the Cape
b) My brother works for NASA on the shuttle crawler
c) I worked for many years training astronauts at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

Since I am emotionally involved in this subject, though, it is probably best for me to not debate you on this.


Yes. I am serious. I have a daughter who also works at Nasa in California, she loves it and stands behind it 100 percent. My mom also loved the space program.
I am also not here to debate it just expressing my opinion.
Thank you.
 
I love NASA. I have been involved in NASA's educational program for a long time. NASA is filled with brilliant people who work for very little money considering their training. I'm sure people thought Christopher Colombus and Leonardo da Vinci were also big boys playing with toys.
 

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