When NASA screws up, they screw up spectacularly. When the Nuclear Compton Telescope team was attempting to launch a heavy and expensive gamma ray telescope in central Australia, they forgot to factor in for the wind. You see, the array was connected to a helium balloon, and the plan was to float the array into the atmosphere and scan the stars for gamma rays from pulsars, quasars, and black holes. Unfortunately, the telescope turned into a multi-million-dollar wrecking ball that sent onlookers running for cover and caused serious damage to an unfortunate bystander’s car.
Best of all, the whole thing was caught on video. It’s spectacular, too. You can clearly see people running for their lives as a few hundred pounds of pointy metal and electronics comes flying at them.
Fortunately, no one was hurt. However, a decade’s worth of painstakingly-crafted research equipment was turned into shrapnel by the accident. The balloon, similar to the one of Balloon Boy fame, was supposed to get some 25 miles off the ground and allow for satellite-quality observation at bargain prices. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.
Tags: Australia, NASA, Nuclear Compton Telescope, NASA balloon crashes in Australia, gamma ray astronomy, failure to launch, NCT, epic fail, telescope crashes