huge NASA balloon and telescopse payload destroyed seconds after launch

It's hard to say what happened. It's clear to me from the position of the balloon when the payload was released what was going to happen. The payload would swing like a pendulum and the arc intersected the ground. Maybe they though the balloon would lift it rapidly enough to have the clearance needed for the swinging action before it got to the bottom of the swing?

It never seemed to have enough lift though. Even when it lost large chunks of the payload, it was still having trouble leaving the ground!
 
Something wasnt right about that. How could that have happened.

The balloon literally played basketball with that payload.




Bill
 
cheezyflier said:
somebody missed a decimal point
Click to expand...


Which decimal point?

edit: I'm dumb. You were only implying that someone who engineered this messed up the math. For a minute, I looked through everyone's posts trying to find the missing decimal....
 
If I am correct, on Earth, most all equasions only have one decimal point. When you have more then one, you have problems... Atoms collide, weather balloons attack cars in parking lots, and it snows in Phoenix...
 
Lionheart said:
If I am correct, on Earth, most all equasions only have one decimal point. When you have more then one, you have problems... Atoms collide, weather balloons attack cars in parking lots, and it snows in Phoenix...
Click to expand...

It snows up north in Flagstaff and Payson, but Phoenix, ever?

Ken
 
Maybe the person who calculated the maximum payload for the balloon was the same person that worked for Lockheed-Martin and failed to convert English units to metric on a mars orbiter mission that ended with the orbiter crashing into the planet.
 
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