NASA Releases Failure Report On Outback Crash 72
cybrpnk2 writes "In a Friday news release, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has issued Part 1 and Part 2 of an excellent and very interesting failure review on the April 28 failed balloon launch of the Nuclear Compton Telescope at Alice Springs, Australia. Bottom line: make sure you don't need a gorilla to pull the payload release handle at balloon launch; if the release mechanism does fail then make sure your safety cables are sized for lift loads and a swinging payload, not just static hanging payload weight; and oh yeah — keep people and vehicles out of the downwind flight path. One spectator was nearly crushed while running from his SUV that was hit and flipped (Figure 29, Vol I). At least nobody ordered video evidence destroyed."
Re:Link? (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoNVCqUMW4A [youtube.com]
youtube vid of the whole mess (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A few quibbles (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe they though since it was a balloon filled with helium and launched by NASA, it would go up and not sideways so it didn't cross their mind?.