The Wallops Balloon Program Office successfully completed a balloon flight for the Wallops ArcsecondPointer (WASP) and the Hyper-Spectral Imager for Climate Science (HySICS) payloads Aug. 18 from Fort Sumner, N.M.
The helium-filled balloon, at 29.47 million cubic feet of volume fully inflated, lifted the 4,244 pound WASP/HySICS payload to an
operational altitude of 122,000 feet.
WASP is an innovative pointing system designed to point balloon-borne scientific instruments at inertial targets with subarcsecond accuracy and stability. The objective of the flight was to demonstrate the capability to integrate, test, and support the HySICS science user with the WASP pointing capability. The HySICS instrument is a new approach to improving radiometric accuracy of Earth spectral observations needed for climate measurements.
Program managers are hailing the 8 hour 54 minute flight as an operational and science success, reporting excellent instrument performance and very high quality science data.
