It's fifth time unlucky for NASA as winds prevented the launch of a giant super pressure balloon from Wanaka Airport on Monday.
The balloon's launch has been postponed four times already, plagued by unfavourable weather conditions. This time, a shift in wind direction toward the west led to cancellation of the planned launch.
If successful, the balloon could journey for 100 days, collecting scientific data.
"We were as close as we've ever been in this campaign for launching, but the wind direction simply wouldn't support taking the next steps of bringing the balloon out and beginning inflation operations," said Gabe Garde, campaign mission manager.
"Our super pressure balloons provide access to near-space environments for fractions of what it would otherwise cost," Raven Aerostar's Daniel Scheiber wrote on NASA's blog in early April.
"A lot of things need to go right to support a launch attempt, but only one thing needs to go wrong," said Justin Marsh, campaign manager for the 2017 Wanaka Super Pressure Balloon Campaign explained when a previous launch attempt was postponed.
It's the third year NASA has launched a balloon in Wanaka.
The balloon is about the size of Dunedin's Forsyth-Barr Stadium when fully inflated and is made from 22 acres of polyethylene film.
The University of Chicago has an extreme universe space observatory being tested on this year's flight.
NASA will assess weather conditions daily and issue a launch update when weather conditions improve.
Newshub.
