Balloon Pictures...

After the ANITA payload was launched yesterday and got up to its float altitude of 120,000 feet, the balloon passed almost directly back over the McMurdo area. The scientist in charge of the ANITA payload has a pretty high powered telescope, and one of the guys was able to capture some pretty amazing pictures of the balloon through the telescope. You can really see how big the balloons are when they are fully inflated. This balloon is nearly 30 million cubic feet in volume. The largest balloons we fly on a regular basis are nearly 40 million cubic feet, a third bigger than this one.
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The first picture is of the balloon at about 110,000 feet, just before it is fully expanded. The second is at the maximum height of 120,000 feet. On both, you can clearly see the payload hanging from the bottom. Just below the bottom of the balloon, you can see the orange parachute. For a size comparison, the payload is about 27 feet tall, and the parachute is 65 long. Everyone was pretty excited when they saw these pictures, as they are some of the most detailed taken of a balloon at its float altitude.

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