FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
World View Completes Successful NASA Flight Mission
Mission Tests New Miniature Solar Observatory Technology
Flight Media Gallery: http://bit.ly/2cbm88i
Tucson, AZ – September 7, 2016 – World View has successfully completed a high-altitude balloon mission
for the Southwest Research Institute, a flight funded by the NASA Flight Opportunities Program (FOP)
office.
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is one of the oldest and largest independent, non-profit, applied
research and development organizations in the United States. For this mission, SwRI flight tested a
miniature solar observatory on a five-hour high-altitude balloon flight. The SwRI Solar Instrument Pointing
Platform (SSIPP) is a complete, high-precision solar observatory approximately the size of a mini fridge
that weighs about 160 pounds. The observatory provides the optical precision equivalent to imaging a
dime from a mile away.
World View launched the flight out of Benson Municipal Airport at 6:05am PT on Saturday, September 3rd,
2016. The World View launch operations team coordinated with all local, regional, national and
government authorities to ensure a safe and seamless mission operation. The flight reached a peak
altitude of just over 103,000ft., with total flight duration lasting just over five hours. The payload and
balloon were both safely returned to earth following the flight, and were recovered by World View
personnel.
The solar observatory itself collects solar data using infrared, ultraviolet, or visible light instruments. The
SwRI scientists used the observatory to search for high-frequency solar soundwaves. The unique
frequency of these “solar ultrasound” waves makes them undetectable by ground-based observatories,
but detectable after being lofted above the majority of Earth’s atmosphere via a World View balloon.
These this experiments prove the efficacy of a new generation of low-cost solar observatory platforms
that can enable researchers to regularly image the solar atmosphere to better understand its heat and
noise properties.
“This novel, low-cost prototype was developed for less than $1 million, which is one-tenth of the cost of
comparable balloon-borne observatories,” said Principal Investigator Dr. Craig DeForest, a scientist in
SwRI’s Space Science and Engineering Division. This breaks down traditional barriers to science by allowing
a low-cost platform for solar research.
This flight wasn’t World View’s first for the NASA FOP office. Over the past few years, World View has
conducted a number of NASA funded high-altitude balloon missions, all from launch locations in Arizona.
World View was also recently awarded two new NASA FOP contracts to conduct high-altitude balloon
missions funded by the agency. Those flights are planned to launch in the near future from Tucson, AZ or
a nearby municipality.
“It has been extremely good working with World View,” said Paul De Leon, the NASA Flight
Opportunities Campaign Manager. “The World View team’s professionalism and attention to detail
contributes to a smooth payload integration and successful flights.”
World View is an approved NASA FOP commercial spaceflight services provider. Under the Flight
Opportunities Program, NASA selects promising new space technologies from industry, academia, and
government and links them with U.S. commercial spaceflight companies to provide the researchers access
to relevant environments for flight testing. This helps NASA mature technology payloads for future space
missions while simultaneously fostering growth in the commercial space industry.
“We’re thrilled with the success of this NASA FOP / SwRI balloon mission,” said World View Co-founder
and Chief Technology Officer Taber MacCallum. “We’re honored to know that NASA and other prominent
research organizations trust our flight platform to enable important scientific progress and technology
demonstrations.”
About World View® Enterprises, Inc.
World View’s innovative flight technologies offer a unique perspective of Earth from the edge of
space. World View delivers meaningful insights to enterprises, agencies, and individuals via two primary
business segments: Stratollite un-crewed flight systems and Voyager human spaceflight systems.
Stratollites, in operation today, offer low-cost, long-duration, persistent high-altitude flight for enterprise
and government agencies. Using advanced stratospheric balloon technology, Stratollite applications
include communications, remote sensing, weather, and research. The Voyager human spaceflight
experience is under development and will launch in the near future, offering private citizens a
comfortable, safe, and perspective-changing voyage to the edge of space via high-altitude balloon. To
learn more about World View, visit www.WorldView.space.