Yesterday's launch of a giant balloon with a special telescope NCT (Nuclear Compton Telescope) near Alice Springs in Australia ended nearly a disaster and human tragedy.
Like a madman NCTa gondola bull jumping at the ground and smashing parked cars
When launching giant balloons intended for lifting NCTa the stratosphere there is a strong side-winds, which is resulting in uncontrolled gondola lift to the telescope and instruments, which was then repeatedly kicked on the ground and up, and soon after got weaker from the gondola cable and continued his leaping at this time, hitting several cars. At least one of the parked vehicle, prying eye witness the launch, there was an older married couple who fortunately passed without injury.
Parts of the telescope and equipment were scattered within a few hundred meters and is really the true happiness that no one was injured. Nuclear Compton Telescope for the study of our galaxy and nejgovo rise into the stratosphere, allowing him an unobstructed view of the sources of electromagnetic radiation that are obstructed by the Earth's atmosphere.
The remains of millions of dollars worth of equipment on the ground after the disaster at launch
NCT is the result of collaboration between UC Berkeley and NASA and is valued at several million dollars. In previous campaigns, the launch of this telescope is spent in the air of a few tens of hours to more than a week.
CSI and the research team collected pieces of equipment now in the Australian desert and it is certain that during the next launch (the telescope is operational again) has to pay much more attention to weather conditions existing immediately above the ground when the balloons are the most sensitive phase of flight.
Marino Tumpić
