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Awkward Launch of a Giant Balloon/Telescope

Submitted by LiveScience Staff

posted: 19 June 2009 05:41 pm ET

: The goofy solar-energy setup looks more alien than the balloon about to be launched by NASA from New Mexico in this 2007 test flight of the Sunrise project, designed to study the sun's magnetic field. Credit: NASA/Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility

What a clumsy yet delicate launch carried out earlier this month! See the video.

Dubbed Sunrise, the balloon observatory was to stay aloft for nearly a week as it travels from the Esrange Space Center in Sweden over the arctic to a safe touchdown in Canada. The mission is part of a NASA experiment for balloon launches and is slated to fly up to six days to snap high-resolution photographs of the sun's surface. Pre-launch story here.

Similar balloons are sometimes spotted in the Southwestern U.S. as they hover so high yet with such reflective brilliance that people sometimes mistake them for UFOs.

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