An ambitious one-day mission to observe the potentially dazzling Comet ISON with a telescope dangling from a colossal NASA balloon this weekend has failed due to a mechanical glitch, NASA officials say.
The mission, called the Balloon Rapid Response for ISON (BRRISON), lifted off from Fort Sumner, N.M., on Saturday (Sept. 28) in a bid to make telescope observations of Comet ISON — which some scientists have dubbed as a potential “comet of the century” if brightens on its way into the inner solar system. The telescope-toting balloon aimed to observe the comet from the Earth’s upper atmosphere in infrared and ultraviolet/visible wavelengths of light.
But roughly two and a half hours after the BRRISON balloon’s launch, the 0.8-meter telescope on its science gondola platform returned to a stowed position too rapidly. That motion drove the telescope past an internal latch, causing it to jam, mission officials said. [Comet ISON In 2013: 8 Essential Facts]
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